









4 



Book__ 

11'd£aj 











International Library of Psychology 
Philosophy and Scientific Method 


The Measurement of Emotion 


International Library of Psychology 
Philosophy and Scientific Method 

General Editor : C. K. Ogden, m.a. 

(Magdalene College, Cambridge) 


Volumes arranged : 

PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES 
by G. E. Moore, Litt.D, 

THE MISUSE OF MIND 
by Karin Stephen 

Prefatory Note by Henri Bergson 

CONFLICT AND DREAM 
by W. H. R. Rivers, F.R.S. 

THE ANALYSIS OF MATTER 
by Bertrand Russell, F.R.S. 

TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS 
by L. Wittgenstein 

Introduction by Bertra?id Russell 

MATHEMATICS FOR PHILOSOPHERS 
by G. H. Hardy, F.R.S. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS 
by E. von Hartmann 

THE ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY 
by William Brown, M.D., D.Sc. 

THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 
by W. Whately Smith 

Foreword, by William Brown 

PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES 
by C. G. Jung, M.D., LL.D. 

THE FOUNDATIONS OF MUSICAL /ESTHETICS 
by W. Pole, F.R.S. 

Edited by Edward J. Dent 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC 
by Edward J. Dent 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE THOUGHT 
by Liang Che-Chiao 

THE MEANING OF MEANING 

by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards 

SOME CONCEPTS OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT 
by C. D. Broad, Litt.D. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF ‘AS IF’ 
by H. Vaihinger 

THE LAWS OF FEELING 
by F. Paulhan 

THE HISTORY OF MATERIALISM 
by F. A. Lange 

COLOUR-HARMONY 
by James Wood 

THE STATISTICAL METHOD IN ECONOMICS AND 
POLITICS 

by P. Sargant Florence 

THE PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM 
by I. A. Richards 

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF REASONING 
by Eugenio Rignano 


The Measurement of 

Emotion 


By 

W. WHATELY SMITH, M.A. 


EDITOR OF “fSYCHE” 



With a Foreword by 


WM. BROWN, M.D., D.Sc. 



NEW YORK 

HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY, INC. 

LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD, 

1922 


t l 





Ho rprvpor lost copy 

' r * - •- C' *j n 

;-jOu 


PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE EDINBURGH PRESS 
9 AND II YOUNG STREET, EDINBURGH 


A b Six ♦ 


£ 




TO 

T. C. PORTER 


FOREWORD 


By WILLIAM BROWN, M.D., D.Sc. 

Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy in the University 

of Oxford 

. Two of the most characteristic features of 
modern psychology are (i) the special attention 
given to the facts of emotional consciousness, 
and (2) the persistent endeavour to obtain a 
quantitative statement of results. In the former 
respect advance has been due mainly to the 
adoption of the biological method. By taking 
the biological problem of instinct and the 
psychological problem of emotion in conjunc¬ 
tion a provisional solution has been obtained of 
both, much as two nuts may be more easily 
cracked together than when taken separately. 
In the latter respect mental measurement has 
been mainly indirect in character, although the 
possibility of direct mental measurement is 
not entirely ruled out. What is measured is 
some physiological concomitant or other of the 
mental process, not the mental process itself. 
Nevertheless, since the mental character of the 
process prompts the measurement and furnishes 
its relevance, such measurement rightly belongs 


7 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


to psychology, although, of course, it also 
belongs to physiology. 

The present work by Mr Whately Smith 
well illustrates these two features. In it the 
biological significance of emotion‘and of affec¬ 
tive tone is emphasised, and by means of 
special methods of experimentation quanti¬ 
tative results are obtained which illuminate 
the subject in a remarkable way. The author 
has derived inspiration for his investigations 
from the work of C. G. Jung on word-association 
experiments. But by giving a more central 
position to the psycho-galvanic reaction, and 
introducing great improvements in the tech¬ 
nique, he has elaborated an experimental method 
of investigating emotion and affective tone 
which is highly original and of very great value. 
His investigation of the relative values of the 
various ‘ complex-indicators ’ is most important, 
and his subsidiary research on the effects of 
alcohol upon association reactions opens up 
prospects of equally valuable work with other 
drugs. 

Mr Whately Smith has shown much ingenuity 
in the quantitative manipulation of his results. 
Particularly interesting is his use of correlation 
in comparing the reactions of any individual 
on different occasions with the reactions of 
different individuals to the same list of 
stimulus-words (Chapter V). This is likely to 
prove of considerable value in the investiga- 

8 


i 


FOREWORD 


tion of multiple personality and mediumistic 
phenomena. 

On the purely theoretical side, his distinction 
of positive tone and negative tone, in relation 
to the influence of feeling upon memory (power 
of recall), is a helpful one. The distinction 
is based upon the experimentally ascertained 
fact that a word which evokes well-marked 
affective tone may be better remembered than 
a less intensely toned word or may be forgotten 
.more quickly. Its significance in relation to 
the general problem of repression is discussed 
in an interesting way. 

The book represents pioneer work in a branch 
of psychology that has only recently proved 
amenable to reliable experimental and quanti¬ 
tative treatment. It will be helpful to the 
psychopathologist as well as to the psychologist. 

W. B. 


9 













I 













* 












PREFACE 


The work described in these pages was under¬ 
taken with the main object of devising and 
testing a technique for the quantitative study of 
the emotional factors in mental activity. The 
actual results obtained in the course of the work 
(as in Chapters II, V and VI and in Appendix 
IV) are, I believe, not wholly devoid of intrinsic 
interest, but they should be regarded primarily 
as illustrations of the way in which the methods 
devised may be used for attacking specific 
problems. In all cases, I think, the method 
actually used could have been improved in 
some degree if the knowledge gained from the 
experiment had been available to start with. 
That this should be so is inevitable and indeed 
desirable in work of this kind in which the per¬ 
fecting of new weapons rather than the solution 
of old problems is the chief desideratum. 

The work dealt with in Appendix IV is especi¬ 
ally noteworthy in this connexion. The curious 
and suggestive results there described came to 
light accidentally in the course of other work, 
and as they were entirely unforeseen no pre¬ 
cautions were taken when making the original 


ii 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


observations in order to ensure a definite answer 
to the questions they raised. 

Since, for reasons given, these results may 
possibly have been due to the form in which 
the material was obtained I have thought 
it best to relegate the whole matter to an 
Appendix, although I incline strongly to the 
view that the existence of 1 psycho-physical 
quanta ' which is there discussed would probably 
be confirmed by further experiment. 

In the course of the work I have naturally 
had occasion to consider somewhat carefully the 
general character of emotional or affective 
states and the part they play in the determina¬ 
tion of mental activity. I have dealt very 
briefly with a few aspects of these matters in 
Chapters I and VII, but a full discussion of 
the subject, to which I hope shortly to devote 
a more extensive study, would be outside the 
scope of the present work, which is intended as a 
contribution to technique rather than to theory. 

The experiments were carried out at the 
Psychological Laboratory, Cambridge, and I 
wish to take this opportunity of thanking 
Dr C. S. Myers, Director of the Laboratoty, 
and Mr F. C. Bartlett for the facilities they 
placed at my disposal and for the encourage¬ 
ment they extended to me. I am also indebted 
to Dr Myers for permission to republish Chapter 
II and Appendix II, which appeared in the 


12 


PREFACE 


General Section of the British Journal of Psy¬ 
chology, and to Dr T. W. Mitchell, Editor of 
the Medical Section, for a similar permission 
with respect to Chapters III, IV and V. 

I am also under an obligation to Dr E. 
Prideaux, who first demonstrated the psycho¬ 
galvanic reflex to me. In particular I wish to 
express my gratitude to my ‘ subjects ’—some 
ninety in all—without whose disinterested co¬ 
operation I could not possibly have obtained 
the experimental results here recorded; I 
would especially thank those who underwent the 
tedious series of tests described in Chapter V. 


13 

















































CONTENTS 


CHAPTER P AGE 

I. Emotion and Affective Tone ... 17 

II. Experiments on Memory and Affective 

Tone ...... .29 

Part I : Experiments with Words . 29 

A . Objects of the Experiments . 29 

B. Technique and Procedure . . 30 

C. Results ..... 38 

D . Conclusions .... 44 

Part II : Experiments with Nonsense- 

Syllables .... 49 

III. Some Properties of Complex-Indicators . 57 

IV. The Relation between Complex-Indica¬ 

tors and the Form of the Association 80 

A . Inner Associations ... 84 

B. Outer Associations ... 86 

C. Other Classes .... 88 

V. Experiments on the Association Test as 

a Criterion of Individuality . . 109 

VI. Experiments on the Effects of Alcohol . 124 

VII. The Theory of Affective Tone . . 140 


15 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

CHAPTER 

VIII. Summary. 

Appendix I: Reactions of a Typical Subject 

,, II: A Note on the Use of the Psycho- 
Galvanic Reflex . 

„ III: A Note on Probability . 

„ IV : Psycho-Physical Quanta . 


PAGE 

166 

169 

170 

179 

180 


l6 


The Measurement of Emotion 


CHAPTER i 

EMOTION AND AFFECTIVE TONE 

It is no part of the intended scope of this book to 
deal fully with the general theory of Emotion. 
None the less, it is desirable that I should give 
some brief outline of my personal views on the 
subject as they stand at the present time, 
partly in order to avoid possible misunder¬ 
standings and partly to make as clear as I can 
what it is that I conceive myself to have been 
measuring in the various experiments described. 

On the other hand, it is not practicable to 
deal with the subject, in this first chapter, to 
the full limits of even the restricted extent 
which I contemplate, for certain of the points 
which I wish to emphasise are too closely bound 
up with experimental results to admit of con¬ 
venient discussion before the experiments have 
been considered. I shall therefore revert to 
the subject again in Chapter VII. 

As a preliminary, however, I wish to identify 
myself, approximately at least, with two of the 
best-known views on emotion. First, with the 
J ames-Eange theory ; second, with Professor 
M'Dougalhs view of the relation between 
Emotion and Instinct. 

James says, “ Bodily changes follow directly 
the perception of the exciting fact, and our feel- 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


ing of the same changes as they occur is the 
emotion/’ 1 

M'Dougall describes a ‘ primary ’ emotion as 
“ the affective aspect of the operation of any 
one of the principal instincts.” 2 

I will deal briefly with each of these statements 
in turn in so far as it is relevant to the present 
work. 

First, the James-Uange theory : With this I 
am at present prepared to stand four-square, for 
none of the criticisms hitherto brought against 
it seem to me to be of sufficient weight to justify 
its rejection. Certainly, in my opinion, no case 
can be made out against its main contention, 
namely, that the experiences, feelings or states 
of mind which we call ‘ emotions ’ are caused 
by, and are absolutely dependent upon, bodily 
changes. If there were no bodily changes, if, 
consequently, the field of consciousness were to 
contain no sensations of endosomatic origin, 
there could be no emotion. 

Nor do I see any great weight in the criticisms 
which have been brought against the use of the 
word ‘ is ’ in the passage cited above. It 
has been pointed out that to say “ our feeling of 
the [bodily] changes as they occur (i.e. the sum- 
total of the endosomatic sensations) is the 
emotion,” is to assert an identity between the 
emotion and the sensation, and that although 
there may be a causal connexion between the 
sensation and the state of mind we call emotion, 
this is not logically equivalent to identity. But, 
as against this, I would contend that the con¬ 
nexion between the endosomatic sensations 
and the affective component of the total mental 

1 Principles of Psychology, Chapter XXV. 

2 Introduction to Social Psychology, Fourteenth Edition, p. 47. 

18 



EMOTION AND AFFECTIVE TONE 


state (i.e. the ‘ emotion ’) is precisely the same 
as that between any other sensation and the 
change in consciousness produced thereby. So 
far as my mind is concerned, sensations eman¬ 
ating from my own body are just as external, 
just as much ‘ given ab extra ’ as those eman¬ 
ating from what I describe as ‘ objects ’ outside 
my body, and should be treated in the same way 
as the latter. If we say that the change in con¬ 
sciousness produced by an ordinary visual 
sensation is ‘ perception/ I do not see that we 
have any right to deny that the change in con¬ 
sciousness produced by a different kind of 
sensation (i.e. a visceral or other endosomatic 
sensation) is ‘ emotion/ Anyway, the point 
appears to be of academic rather than of prac¬ 
tical interest, although, since this estimate of 
its value is unlikely to be universally shared, I 
am quite willing to disarm such criticism by 
substituting some such expression as ‘ is caused 
by ' or ‘ is dependent on ’ for the word ‘ is/ 

Nor can I agree with Professor Ward who 
describes the theory as “ psychologically and 
biologically absurd,” contending that “ emotion 
is always the expression of feeling,” which last 
“ has always some objective ground.” How 
Emotion, which is a state of consciousness or 
form of experience, can be said to express any¬ 
thing at all seems to me incomprehensible : and 
surely the ‘ feeling' which it is alleged to 
express is nothing but Emotion itself as James 
defines it and the ‘ objective ground ' the aggre¬ 
gate of endosomatic sensations induced by the 
total situation. 

Another objection which has recently been 
brought against the James-Eange theory, but 
which I cannot admit as valid, is that of Prideaux 

*9 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


who contends 1 that the theory cannot be main¬ 
tained because the emotion is experienced some 
time before endosomatic changes are demon¬ 
strable. He points out that there is always a 
latent period between the moment of applica¬ 
tion of a stimulus and the moment at which any 
change caused thereby can be observed. This 
latent period may range from a second or two 
in the case, for example, of the psycho-galvanic 
reflex up to as much as five minutes in the 
case of gastric secretion (Pavlov). On the other 
hand there is no appreciable interval between 
the perception of the stimulus by the subject 
and his subjective experience of the emotion. 
From this Prideaux argues that the physiolo¬ 
gical disturbance which is observed cannot be 
the cause of the emotion which precedes it. 
This is obviously true so far as it goes, but un¬ 
less we adopt an absurdly rigid interpretation 
of the James-Eange theory, the latter is not in 
the least degree invalidated. 

It seems eminently reasonable to suppose that 
between the application of any stimulus and 
the production of an experimentally observable 
effect, such as a change in skin-resistance, in 
respiration or in the rate of secretion of a gland, 
there must be many steps. The effect observed 
is the last stage in a long and complex process 
involving the energisation of many neurones, 
the initiation, in some cases, of chemical changes, 
the contraction, in others, of many muscle fibres. 
All this admittedly takes time, but it does not 
follow that no impulse of endosomatic origin 
passes up afferent paths to the cortex before 
the particular effect observed is demonstrable. 
When a stimulus is applied to a subject a wave of 

1 British Journal of Psychology (Medical Section), October 1921. 

20 


EMOTION AND AFFECTIVE TONE 


innervations sweeps over his whole body, so to 
speak. Many mechanisms are set in motion 
of which some take longer than others to produce 
visible results, but that is no reason why the 
general disturbance should not, at an early stage, 
include a reflux of innervation along afferent 
paths. On these lines it seems easy to dispose of 
this objection, quite apart from the fact that no 
one has ever measured the actual latent period 
between the stimulus and the subjective experi¬ 
ence of emotion. 

Before passing to the comments I have to 
make on Dr M'Dougall’s views, which I have 
cited above, it may be well to point out that on 
this theory the differences between different 
‘ emotions' will simply be a matter of the 
different kinds of endosomatic sensations con¬ 
cerned, their different intensities and the different 
proportions in which they are present. That 
is to say, it is impossible to regard emotions 
as rigidly invariable entities, for these factors 
are clearly infinitely variable. None the less 
the changes induced by like conditions in like 
individuals will be themselves sufficiently similar 
to warrant description of their corresponding 
emotions by the same name . 1 

1 Cf. Shand, Foundations of Character, p. 3. “ The authors 

[of the James-Lange theory] rejected the common belief that the 
emotions have definite and persistent characters. The truth is, 
says Lange, that they present ‘ an infinity of imperceptible transi¬ 
tions,’ and James says that ‘they are regarded too much as absolutely 
individual things.' For if it is true that the peculiar character of 
their feeling is conditioned by vaso-motor and other bodily changes, 
and that these being variable . . . the feeling of the emotion is 
itself variable in different persons and in the same person at different 
times ; yet this conclusion only verifies the fact, clear to intro¬ 
spection, that the same emotion may at different times include 
different bodily sensations. But setting aside those cases ... in 
which one emotion so blends with others as to produce an emotional 
state that we cannot name or identify, still, fear, anger and other 
emotions, though their bodily sensations undergo some change, 
preserve their identity.” 


21 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


This seems to me to lead us naturally to a con¬ 
sideration of Professor M‘Dougall's theory, which 
I conceive to be one of the most valuable ever 
put forward in this field. He urges us to regard 
emotions as the affective aspects of the operation 
of instincts, and if we do so the whole matter 
seems to me to become extraordinarily clearer. 

Much ink has been spilt over the question of 
how 4 instinct 'or ‘an instinct' ma}^ best be 
defined. Into this, which is somewhat remote 
from the main business of the present work, I 
shall not enter. But, however much authorities 
may differ, it at least seems to be agreed, first, 
that an instinct consists in a tendency for an 
organism to react in a certain way to a certain 
situation; second, that it is innate. Many 
variations and extensions of these defining 
statements have been proposed but are un¬ 
necessary for our present purposes. The essence 
of an instinct is that it is constituted by innate 
constructional details of the organism, such that, 
confronted by a particular situation, it tends to 
react in a particular way. 

The particularity of the reaction will depend 
on the degree of standardisation, so to speak, 
of the stimulating situation on the one hand 
and of the structure of the organism on the 
other—using the term ‘ structure,' of course, in 
the widest possible sense. Identically similar 
organisms in identically similar situations would 
react in identically similar ways. 

But any reaction or mode of behaviour implies 
certain adjustments—secretions, muscular con¬ 
tractions, innervations, etc.—within the organ¬ 
ism. It is the inward reflux of the disturbance 
occasioned by these adjustments which produces 
the emotion accompanying the reaction [i.e. 



EMOTION AND AFFECTIVE TONE 


the ‘ instinctive ’ behaviour). The particularity 
of this emotion is, therefore, precisely propor¬ 
tional to that of the reaction, dependent in turn 
upon the situation and the organism. 

Hence it is clear that in so far as individuals 
are alike and in so far as the situations they 
encounter are similar, they will react similarly 
and experience similar emotions. 

On one point—a point of considerable theore¬ 
tical importance—I wish to reserve judgment. 
I am not yet clear in my mind whether emotion 
can be induced by the reaction itself freely 
executed or whether it is only the preliminary 
preparation, the subliminal innervations, etc., 
which are responsible for it. The latter are 
certainly efficient causes, but it may be that the 
free execution of certain reactions is not accom¬ 
panied by emotion at all . 1 But the point is not 
of practical importance in the present connexion. 

In any event it is clear that the endosomatic 
changes induced by emotion-provoking situa¬ 
tions are amply sufficient to meet the demands 
of the J ames-Bange theory. The work of 
Cannon on the Bodily Changes in Hunger, Fear, 
etc., and of Crile (Man an Adaptive Mechanism) 
and other workers on the same lines has placed this 
beyond the possibility of doubt, for they have 
demonstrated that any exciting situation elicits 
secretory and other changes within the organism . 2 

1 Cf. p. 160. 

2 Compare also the views of Holt, quoted in Chapter VII and the 
following passage from Frink ( Morbid Fears and Compulsions, 
p. 153) : “ An emotion, one might say, is an undischarged action, 
a deed yet retained within the organism. . . . Perhaps it would 
be more accurate to say that emotion is a state of preparedness for 
action, which, however, in many ways is almost the action itself. 
The involuntary nervous system is excited in the same way as 
in action. ... A state of tonus is produced in the same voluntary 
muscles that would be innervated to produce the action itself.” 
See also Kempf, The Autonomic Functions of the Personality. 

23 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


I will summarise the foregoing by stating my 
view of emotion as follows: Emotion is the 
effect produced in consciousness by the endo - 
somatic adjustments elicited in the organism by the 
stimulus applied to it, or, more generally, by the 
situation which it encounters. It is thus associated 
in the most intimate possible manner with the 
reaction corresponding to that situation or stimulus, 
and may thus be correctly described as “ the 
affective aspect of the operation of an instinct 

Three points remain to be dealt with before I 
proceed to give an account of the experiments 
with which this book is chiefly concerned. 

First, I must give a preliminary explanation of 
the distinction I wish to make between ‘ emo¬ 
tion ’ and ‘ affective tone ’ — the latter being 
a term which I shall use constantly throughout 
the succeeding chapters. Secondly, I must say 
a few words about the psycho-galvanic reflex 
which has been my chief weapon of research. 

As regards, then, my use of the term ‘ affective 
tone/ I could perfectly well have used the 
word ‘ emotion ’ throughout and have spoken 
of ‘ positive emotion ' and ‘ negative emotion ’ 
as I have spoken of ‘ positive ’ and ‘ negative ' 
affective tone. I have abstained from doing so 
simply on the score of convenience. As will 
appear later, I have used the adjectives ‘ posi¬ 
tive ’ and ‘ negative ’ to denote certain special 
properties of affective tone or emotion ; to refer, 
that is to say, to the influence which the emotion 
considered, or measured, exerts on the accession 
to consciousness of the ‘ presentations ’ or ‘ ideas ’ 
which it accompanies. 

In no part of my work have I had any interest 
whatever in whether the emotion experienced by 
a subject was one of joy, shame, grief, tenderness, 

24 


EMOTION AND AFFECTIVE TONE 


anger, fear, wonder, exultation, or depression, or 
belonged to any such category. I have through¬ 
out considered the emotion induced solely with 
regard to its above-mentioned properties in the 
matter of the accession to consciousness of the 
presentations which it accompanies and to its 
quantitative intensity. 

In these circumstances I have preferred the 
term ‘ affective tone ’ to the word ‘ emotion ’ 
because, as a result of current usage, the latter 
almost inevitably suggests categorical classifica¬ 
tions which have nothing to do with my present 
work. A close parallel may be found in elec¬ 
trical theory. The term ‘ electricity ’ suggests 
a multitude of facts regarding resistance, imped¬ 
ance, induction, alternating and direct current, 
thermal effects and so forth ; and if one were 
writing an elementary book on statical electricity 
it would be more convenient to speak throughout 
of positive and negative charges so as implicitly 
to focus attention on a limited aspect of the 
subject dealt with. 

I hope that, as a matter of convenience, this 
will appear justifiable, but if any reader prefers 
to substitute the word ‘ emotion ’ throughout, 
I have no objection. 

Secondly, as regards the psycho-galvanic reflex 
itself. I believe it will be clear to any reader 
who has the patience to finish the book that this 
phenomenon is by far the most delicate, reliable 
and quantitatively accurate method at present 
known for detecting and measuring emotional 
changes. Its precise nature is not yet altogether 
clear, although it seems certainly to include a 
polarisation effect in the skin . 1 This doubt as 
to its origin does not, however, in any way affect 

1 Prideaux, loc. cit. 

25 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


its practical value, which is due to the fact that it 
is not in the least under direct conscious control, 
cannot, therefore, be inhibited and can easily 
be measured to almost any required degree of 
accuracy. It appears, moreover, to accompany 
every kind of emotional excitement, a fact which 
—as will appear later—is of the utmost practical 
value in elucidating certain problems. 

At first sight it may seem surprising that this 
should be so, for the skin seems a rather un¬ 
likely part of the body to be stirred to activity 
by every situation. On the other hand it may be 
pointed out, first, that experiment has shown that 
certain reactions, such as the secretion of adren¬ 
alin, are almost invariable effects of any stimu¬ 
lating situation, and, second, that the free action 
of the skin is known to be of first-rate importance 
to the successful functioning of the body, especi¬ 
ally when any exertion is involved. Now the 
increased secretion of adrenalin is part of the 
body’s automatic preparation for increased 
activity, and, in view of the important part 
played by the skin in such circumstances, we 
need not really be surprised that some innerva¬ 
tion of its mechanisms should be a regular part 
of the general mobilisation of forces or that the 
degree of innervation (and, therefore, the magni¬ 
tude of the observed effect) should be propor¬ 
tional to the urgency of the demand— i.e. to the 
intensity of the stimulus. 

Finally, I should like to call to mind the 
observations of Jung who, in the course of his 
writings on the Word-association Test, explains 
that to give a stimulus-word to a subject is 
equivalent to confronting him with a situation 
—on a small scale, so to speak. When a 
stimulus-word is applied, a host of associated 

26 




EMOTION AND AFFECTIVE TONE 


images of one kind and another is called up in 
the subject’s mind of a nature dependent on his 
past experience. These constitute a veritable 
‘ situation in miniature,’ and it is to this—in 
the context of the test, of course—that he 
reacts. 

There seems, then, no a priori reason for 
doubting that the psycho-galvanic reflex will 
give a correct measure of the intensity of the 
emotion (or affective tone) elicited by a stimulus- 
word, or that the emotion is genuinely correlated 
with the latter in kind and in degree. 

Thirdly, it is necessary to meet in advance one 
criticism which might otherwise be raised. 

There can be no doubt that the skin change 
measured by the galvanometer is only a part 
of the total adjustment of the body to the 
situation. And it is possible that different kinds 
of emotion may be accompanied by different 
proportions of skin change ; the skin might be 
more affected by fear, for example, than by 
joy, and so on. It might be thought that if this 
were so the value of the reflex as a measure of 
emotion would be seriously impaired ; for one 
could never be sure whether a given deflexion 
represented a small degree of an emotion accom¬ 
panied by a relatively large skin change or a 
larger degree of one accompanied by a relatively 
small skin change. 

The answer to this is that, so far as I can 
ascertain by personal introspection and by the 
reports of my subjects, such differences do not 
exist in the specific character of the emotion 
elicited by the words of an association test. 
The words do not appear to arouse emotions 
which^are recognisably different ; the subject is 
not in general aware of one word arousing 

27 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


fear, another joy, a third wonder, or a fourth 
grief. On the contrary, the effect, when con¬ 
sciously perceived at all, appears to be of a 
generalised and unspecific character. If it is 
to be given a name at all, one would call it 
‘ startledness ' or ‘ embarrassment * or, more 
vaguely, * excitement/ and it seems to be 
identical for all words, with only very few and 
rare exceptions. This applies both to normal 
subjects and to those who were examined under 
the influence of alcohol. 

Consequently, I believe that the reflex, when 
applied in this particular way is, in practice, a 
true measure of the intensity of emotion aroused. 

In the course of the succeeding chapters, 
mainly devoted to experimental studies, I shall 
touch at intervals upon other theoretical points 
which naturally arise. And I shall return to 
the theory of affective tone in Chapter VII. 
But I wish to repeat with emphasis that the 
foregoing notes on emotional theory do not 
profess to do more than indicate the general 
nature of my views : they are in nowise offered 
as a complete vindication of them or of the 
James-Tange theory. 


28 


CHAPTER II 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY AND 
AFFECTIVE TONE 

Part I 

EXPERIMENTS WITH WORDS 

A. Objects of the Experiments 

The experiments described below were under¬ 
taken with the object of investigating the influ¬ 
ence of affective tone on the process of memory 
by as quantitative and unambiguous a method as 
possible. 

It is not unusual to find in psychological text¬ 
books statements to the effect that some such 
influence is exerted ; but these statements are 
not, as a rule, supported by anything more 
scientifically precise than an appeal to common 
experience. It is suggested that we tend to 
remember ‘ pleasant ’ things and to forget ‘ un¬ 
pleasant ’ ones, and it is pointed out that we are 
much more apt to forget tedious and disagree¬ 
able appointments, for example, than those 
which promise interest and pleasure. This may 
be true enough, but it is equally a matter of 
common experience that there are many in¬ 
tensely distressing experiences which we find 
it only too difficult to forget and which in¬ 
sistently obtrude themselves into our memories. 
Common experience is, in fact, as unsatisfactory 
and conflicting in this connexion as in most 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


other cases. It is also too vague to be of much 
scientific value. 

Evidence of a much more scientific nature has 
been brought forward by Freud and others of his 
school (cf. Freud’s Psychopathology of Everyday 
Life). He has found that in many cases where 
certain special items of experience, such as 
proper names, numbers, etc., which one would 
expect to be remembered easily, are in fact 
forgotten or distorted, it is possible to trace 
an associative connexion between them and some 
distressing or disagreeable experience or ‘ idea ’ 
of a nature calculated to provoke mental conflict 
—they are, in fact, associated with ‘ complexes.’ 
From this he concludes that such cases of for¬ 
getfulness are special instances of the general 
process of ‘ repression.’ 

The reasons advanced in support of this view 
have, however, been criticised on various 
grounds ; as, for instance, that they are in no 
way quantitative, that no measurement either 
of ‘ affective value ’ or ‘ memory value ’ is made 
in respect of the forgotten material ; that the 
associations noted may themselves be to some 
considerable extent determined by the observer’s 
interest in the subject and his views on the cause 
of forgetfulness ; and that the material dealt 
with is of a somewhat highly specialised type. 

I therefore felt that it would be worth while to 
investigate the question by a purely objective 
method from which these sources of error were 
eliminated. 


B. Technique and Procedure 

(i) I proceeded to attempt to measure, quanti¬ 
tatively, the amount of affective tone excited in 

30 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


different subjects by certain words, and also 
the ease with which these words were retained in 
memory, thereby obtaining data amenable to 
mathematical treatment. 

The procedure was as follows : 

I applied to each of 50 subjects (36 men, 14 
women) a word-association test consisting of 
100 words. 

The same list was used throughout except that 
after three subjects had been examined nine 
words were altered, in order slightly to increase 
the range of interests covered by the list. Other¬ 
wise the words used were substantially the same 
as those given by Dr Eder in the introduction 
to his translation of Jung's Studies in Word 
Association. The final list used is given in 
Table I (p. 32). 

In addition to these, five ‘ practice ’ words 
(Hand, Chain, Face, Run, Egg) were given to 
each subject before starting on the main list. 
These were intended to enable the experimenter 
to make sure that the subject properly under- 
stood what was required of him, and to reduce, so 
far as possible, the effects on the early words of 
the main series of any initial embarrassment or 
agitation which the subject might feel. 

Three different methods were used for de¬ 
tecting and estimating the affective tone evoked 
by the words : 

I. The Psycho-galvanic reflex. (All sub¬ 
jects.) 

II. The Reaction-time measured in fifths of 
seconds. (49 subjects.) 

III. Jung's Reproduction test. (22 subjects.) 

31 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Table I 


I. 

Head 

26. Blue 

5 1 - Fr °g 

76. Wait 

2. 

Green 

27. Lamp 

52 . Try 

77. Cow 

3 - 

Water 

28. Carry 

53. Hunger 

78. Name 

4 - 

Sing 

29. Bread 

54. White 

79. Luck 

5 * 

Dead 

30. Rich 

55. Child 

80. Horse 

6. 

Long 

31. Tree 

56. Speak 

81. Table 

7 - 

Ship 

32. Jump 

57. Pencil 

82. Work 

8. 

Make 

33. Pity 

58. Sad 

83. Brother 

9 - 

Woman 

34. Yellow 

59. Plum 

84. Afraid 

10. 

Friend 

35. Street 

60. Marry 

85. Love 

11. 

Cook 

36. Bury 

61. Home 

86. Chair 

12. 

Ask 

37. Salt 

62. Nasty 

87. Worry 

13 - 

Cold 

38. Dress 

63. Glass 

88. Kiss “ 

I 4 * 

Stalk 

39. Habit 

64. Fight 

89. Motor 

!5- 

Dance 

40. Pray 

65. Wine 

90. Clean 

16. 

Village 

41. Money 

66. Big 

91. Bag 

i 7 - 

Pond 

42. Silly 

67. Carrot 

92. Choice 

18. 

Sick 

43. Book 

68. Give 

93. Bed 

19. 

Proud 

44. Despise 

69. Doctor 

94. State 

20. 

Bring 

45. Finger 

70. Travel 

95. Happy 

21. 

Ink 

46. War 

71. Flower 

96. Shut 

22. 

Angry 

47. Bird 

72. Beat 

97. Wound 

23- 

Needle 

48. Walk 

73. Box 

98. Evil 

24. 

Swim 

49. Paper 

74. Old 

99. Divorce 

25- 

Go 

50. Wicked 

75. Family 

100. Insult 


Nothing need be said about the two last, but 
it may be of interest to give a few details about 
the first, which proved by far the most delicate 
and valuable test of affective tone. 

The arrangement of apparatus was as follows : 

A Wheatstone’s bridge was used in conjunc¬ 
tion with a D’Arsonval type of galvanometer 
(resistance 92 ohms) and the resistances and 
connexions were as shown diagrammatically in 
Fig. 1. The electrodes, Ei, E2, consisted of zinc- 
plate discs about 2 inches in diameter, covered 
with wash-leather and soaked in concentrated 
solution of common salt. They were always 
applied to the dorsal and palmar surfaces of 

32 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


the subject's left hand, and the hand, electrodes, 
wool pads, etc., were strapped firmly to a wooden 
splint in order to ensure a firm and satisfactory 
contact. The galvanometer was used in con¬ 
junction with a lamp and a celluloid scale 
graduated in millimetres. 

A io-ohm shunt was connected across the 
terminals of the galvanometer and a two-volt 
cell applied to the bridge. 



Fig. 1 

The general objects and nature of the experi¬ 
ment were briefly explained to each subject 
before starting operations ; he was then seated 
in a comfortable easy chair in such a position 
that he could see neither the experimenter nor 
the apparatus, the electrodes were applied and 
the patient's resistance balanced on the bridge. 
The necessary particulars of name, age, etc., 
were then taken, the five practice words given 
and the bridge was rebalanced. The experiment 
proper then began and, unless the subject's 

33 c 

















THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


resistance increased or decreased so much that 
the spot of light moved off the scale alto¬ 
gether, the bridge was not readjusted during 
the experiment. (In those cases when re¬ 
adjustment proved necessary suitable correc¬ 
tions have been made in the subsequent com¬ 
putations.) 

The data actually recorded for each reaction 
were : 

[а) Number of the word in the list. 

(б) Subject’s response. 

(c) Reaction-time : in \ seconds. 

( d ) Initial position of the spot of light on the scale at the 

beginning of its excursion. 

(e) The position on the scale reached by the spot of light 

at the end of its excursion. (Galvanometer 
deflexions were read to the nearest mm.) 

(/) The difference between (<?) and ( d ). (This was inserted 
later.) 

(g) Whether the reproduction of the association was right 
or wrong. 

A typical line of the record would thus read : 

No. Response R.T. From To Difference Reproduction 

9 Man 8 63 75 12 (Right) 

In general the stimulus-words were called out 
at approximately equal intervals, so far as was 
compatible with allowing the galvanometer to 
come substantially to rest between each excur¬ 
sion. 1 

In the comparatively rare cases in which 
bodily movements or other causes prevented the 

1 A complete set of data obtained from a typical subject is shown 
in Table XXXIII (Appendix I). The galvanometer deflexions of 
this subject are shown in Fig. 5, where the thick lines represent the 
excursions of the spot of light due to the stimulus-word and the 
thin lines indicate its return between reactions. 

34 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


movements of the galvanometer being read with 
reasonable precision, no entry was made under 
the fourth, fifth and sixth heads shown in the 
above record. These effects of bodily move¬ 
ments were easily recognisable, for the true 
reaction is always preceded by a latent period, 
whereas bodily movements which affect the 
mechanical conditions of contact produce their 
effect immediately. A very short experience 
enables the experimenter to distinguish infallibly 
between the two kinds of deflexion. 

It was found that different subjects varied 
considerably in the reliability of the records 
it was possible to obtain from them. Some gave 
clear, regular, well-defined deflexions; others 
were much more erratic. In order to reduce, as 
far as possible, any accidental errors which might 
arise from this source, each set of observations 
was assigned a ‘ weight' according to their 
estimated reliability. Observations of first-class 
reliability were weighted as 6, second-class as 5 
and third-class as 4. Two exceptionally erratic 
subjects were weighted as 2 only. The weights 
were incorporated in the subsequent calculations 
in the usual way. This weighting was not 
applied to reaction times. 

In order to make the deflexions given by 
different subjects as comparable as possible, I 
calculated the mean resistance of each subject by 
adding together the initial readings of the gal¬ 
vanometer for each reaction and dividing the 
sum by the number of reactions (normally 100). 
This gave the mean initial position of the gal¬ 
vanometer for each subject, from which, 
knowing the subject's resistance when the 
bridge was balanced, it was easy to ascertain 
—by direct calibration of the apparatus—the 

35 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


mean resistance of the subject during the 
experiment. 

I then multiplied the deflexions of each subject 
by his mean resistance (in thousands of ohms) 
thus obtained. This eliminates variations due 
to subjects possessing different intrinsic resist¬ 
ances. (The justification of this statement is 
given in Appendix II.) Deflexions were also, 
of course, multiplied, for purposes of computa¬ 
tion, by the appropriate ‘ weight' as already 
indicated. 

Inasmuch as the resistance of most subjects 
decreased during the experiment, this procedure 
tends slightly to penalise the earlier words of 
the series as compared with the later words. 
But this does not affect the conclusions drawn 
from the experiments so far as memory is con¬ 
cerned. 

All the subjects were thoroughly normal and 
were drawn from the educated classes. Of the 
men 35 were between 19 and 30 years of age, 
while one was about 35 : 15 of these were junior 
Naval officers, the remainder were University 
students. Of the women 12 were between 19 
and 30 and 2 between 45 and 60. 

(ii) In order to measure the ‘ memory value ' 
of the words, I caused the subjects to learn by 
heart a selection of the stimulus-words whose 
concomitant affective tone I had measured in the 
manner described above. These words were 
reproduced by the subjects at gradually in¬ 
creasing intervals and from the success of the 
reproductions a measure of their ‘ memory 
value ' was obtained. 

The procedure was as follows : 

Two days after the experiment I sent to each 

36 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


subject a list of thirty words arranged in five 
rows of six words each, 1 e.g. : 


Long 

Friend 

Ask 

Dance 

Sick 

Ink 

Swim 

Carry 

Tree 

Pity 

Dress 

Money 

Finger 

Paper 

Frog 

Hunger 

Child 

Plum 

Mary 

Wine 

Carrot 

Flower 

Family 

Cow 

Name 

Luck 

Chair 

Kiss 

Choice 

Insult 


They were carefully instructed to commit 
these words to memory as mechanically as 
possible ( i.e . not to invent any memoria technica 
for them), to destroy the list when they had 
learned it well enough to say it through once 
without a mistake, and to think as little about the 
words as possible when once they had been 
learned. 

Reply postcards were then sent to each subject 
on the fifth, ninth, fourteenth, twent3^-first 
and thirty-first days after the experiment with 
the request that the subject would write down 
as many of the words learned as he could then 
remember and would underline those over 
which he hesitated or which seemed to recur 
with difficulty. All subjects were warned not 
to ‘ rack their brains ’ or to make great efforts 
about the reproductions but rather to write down 
quickly and immediately as many words as 
came to them in the space of two or three 
minutes. 

In computing the results, words which were 
perfectly reproduced were given two marks 
for each reproduction, words underlined were 
given one mark and words not reproduced 
no marks. 

Any word might, therefore, make a total 

1 Association by meaning between successive words was some¬ 
times inevitable, but its effects tell against, rather than in favour of, 
my conclusions. 


37 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


score of any integer from o to io. The total 
score actually made was taken as the memory 
value of the word concerned. 

C. Results 

In case it should be suspected that the magni¬ 
tude of the galvanometer deflexion is not a 
quantitative indication of the amount of affective 
tone evoked by the corresponding stimulus-word, 
I give here the mean deflexions, arranged in 
order of magnitude, which were obtained in 
response to the hundred stimulus-words of my 
list (Table I) for the whole of the fifty subjects 
examined. 


Table II 

Defln. Word Defln. Word Defln. 


Word Defln. 

1. Kiss 72*8 

2 . Love 59*5 

3 . Marry 58*5 

4 . Divorce 50*8 

5 . Name 48*7 

6 . Woman 40*8 

7 . Wound 38*0 

8 . Dance 37*4 

9 . Afraid 36-8 

10 . Proud 36*7 

11 . Habit 36*6 

12 . Money 35*6 

13 . Fight 35*0 

14 . Child 35-0 

15 . State 34-8 

16 . Despise 34*7 

17 . War 34*1 

18 . Family 33*6 

19 . Happy 33*4 

20 . Pray 33*1 

21 . Worry 33*0 

22 . Insult 32*5 

23 . Friend 32*2 

24 . Head 31*7 

25 . Angry 31-5 


Word 

26 . Wine 30*9 

27 . Luck 30*8 

28 . Green 30-4 

29 . Ask 30*0 

30 . Make 29*9 

31 . Pity 29*7 

32 . Choice 29*7 

33 . Dress 28*5 

34 . Wicked 28-4 

35 . Dead 27*6 

36 . Sing 27-6 

37 . Horse 27*1 

38 . Evil 27-0 

39 . Doctor 26*9 

40 . Stalk 26*2 

41 . Book 26*1 

42 . Travel 25*9 

43 . Sick 25*8 

44 . Bag 25*8 

45 . Water 25*6 

46 . Home 25*4 

47 . Big 25*3 

48 . Bed 25-2 

49 . Silly 25-2 

50 . Brother 25*2 


51 . Street 24-9 

52 . Beat 24*6 

53 . Carry 24-5 

54 . Wait 24-4 

55 . Speak 24*3 

56 . Box 23*9 

57 . Nasty 23*6 

58 . Jump 23*5 

59 . Paper 23’2 

60 . Lamp 23T 

61 . Cold 23-0 

62 . Long 22*7 

63 . Go 22*6 

64 . Cook 22*3 

65 . Yellow 22*2 

66 . Chair 21-7 

67 . Finger 21*5 

68 . Sad 21-4 

69 . Tree 21*2 

70 . Needle 21T 

71 . Blue 20*6 

72 . Ship 20*5 

73 . Motor 20-4 

74 . Frog 20-2 

75 . Walk 20T 


76 . Try 20*0 

77 . Plum 20*0 

78 . Village 19-9 

79 . Rich 19-9 

80 . Salt 19-8 

81 . Bird 19-6 

82 . Bread 19-6 

83 . Old 19*3 

84 . Cow 19*0 

85 . Bring 19*0 

86 . Clean 18*8 

87 . Ink 18-7 

88 . Sheet 18*6 

89 . Table 18*5 

90 . Work 18*3 

91 . Carrot 18*2 

92 . Bury 1 18*0 

93 . Hunger 17-9 

94 . White 17*8 

95 . Glass 17*6 

96 . Give 16-7 

97 . Flower 16T 

98 . Pond 15-5 

99 . Pencil 15*4 

100 . Swim 14*2 


1 This word was frequently understood as ‘ Berry.’ 

38 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


The deflexions given are weighted means and 
may be taken to represent the reactions of atypical 
‘ standard ' subject of resistance 1000 ohms. 

It will, I think, be generally admitted that the 
earlier words in this list are intrinsically more 
likely to arouse affective tone in normal persons 
than those which appear later. 

Of the first six words, five are closely con¬ 
nected with sex-life and therefore likely to be 
of the utmost affective significance. The other 
—‘ name ’—may derive some of its importance 
from its associations with the ‘ ego-complex ’ 
(some subjects reacted with their own name), but 
I am inclined to think that its effect is mainly due 
to the operation of sex-factors, for the word is 
obviously likely to arouse thoughts of a wife, 
husband, lover or other person of sexual interest 
to the subject. 

The dominance of this group of six words is 
very clearly demonstrated if the deflexions are 
shown graphically in order of magnitude. There 
is a steady and almost uniform increase of the 
ordinate from ‘ swim ’ to ‘ wound' inclusive when 
it suddenly shoots up in a most marked manner. 

The somewhat low value for ‘ woman * as 
compared with the other members of the sexual 
group is apparently due to the fact that it 
possesses a much higher emotional significance 
for men (mean deflexion =44-6) than for women 
(mean deflexion =33*5), which is what one 
would expect. 

Satisfactory reproductions of words learned 
were obtained from 41 subjects (31 men, 10 
women). 

The words learned by these subjects were 
classified according to their memory value (o, 1, 
2, etc., up to 10) and the weighted mean of the 

39 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


galvanometer deflexions was calculated for each 
class. The probable error of these weighted 
means was also computed. The results are 
shown in Table III. 

Table III 


Words 

No. of 

Weighted 

Probable 

scoring 

words 

mean G.D. 

error of mean 

0 

326 

25*62 

1*03 

1 

23 

46*26 

7*93 

2 

77 

21*73 

2*13 

3 

12 

40*00 

10*31 

4 

22 

22*89 

5*25 

5 

12 

27*35 

5*48 

6 

31 

25*44 

3*63 

7 

38 

21*61 

2*48 

8 

93 

33*47 

2*51 

9 

102 

38*10 

3*64 

10 

457 

36*93 

1*34 


(Note. —The chance that the excess of the mean 
G.D. for words scoring io over that for words 
scoring o is accidental is about -ooooi. The 
chance that the excess of the mean G.D. for 
words scoring o over that for words scoring 2 
is accidental is about -II5. 1 ) 

These figures are not very informative as they 
stand, owing to their irregularity and the great 
differences in reliability between the different 
means. 

Their significance can be better brought 
out by drawing a smooth curve of the form 

y = ax* + bx+c, 
through the points 

x =o,y =25-62, 
x = i,y =46-26, 
x = 2 ,y =21-73, etc., 

by the usual method of L,east Squares, weighting 
the values of ‘ y ’ inversely as their probable errors. 

This curve is y = *324% 2 + i-16% +23-49. For 

1 See Appendix III. 

40 



EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


convenience of calculation the middle of the 
memory value range is taken as origin : this also 
applies to the equations given later. 

This yields the following values for the mean 

G D- S : Tabee IV 


Words 

scoring 

0 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 
9 

10 


Mean 

G.D. 

25-8 

24- 0 

22- 9 
22*5 
22-6 

23- 5 

25- 0 
27*1 
29-9 
33-3 
37-4 


This result is shown graphically in Fig. 2. It 
is clear that the words best remembered have on 
the average a very much higher mean galva¬ 
nometer deflexion ( i.e . arouse on the average con¬ 
siderably more affective tone) than those which 
are soonest forgotten ; and that the latter have 
on the average an appreciably higher affective 
value than words which are moderately well 
remembered. 1 

If it be objected the large probable errors of 
some of the means are calculated to arouse 
suspicions as to the reliability of the curve, 
the answer is that elimination of the least 
reliable values would not alter its general 
indications. Moreover, the results obtained 
from similar treatment of reaction times and 
the reproduction test are concordant and, in 
addition, I shall show in later chapters that the 
results obtained in further analysis of the same 
material are harmonious to an extent which 


1 In the latter, a still higher affective value would have been 
observed but for the effects of dilution (see p. 46). 

41 


Mean Galvanometer Deflexion 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

would be impossible if the general form of this 
curve were incorrect. 



Fig. 2. Curve showing relation between Memory and Emotion 
as measured by the Galvanometer. 


Similar treatment of the reaction times (49 
subjects) gives the values shown in Table V. 



Table V 

Final values for 

Words 

Mean 

Probable 

representative 

scoring 

R.T. 

error 

curve 

0 

11-84 

•25 

11-99 

1 

11-13 

-59 

11-68 

2 

12-13 

•49 

11-44 

3 

11-58 

•92 

11-25 

4 

13-45 

1-09 

11-13 

5 

12-18 

•84 

11-06 

6 

11-16 

•52 

11-05 

7 

10-13 

•34 

11-11 

8 

13-31 

•86 

11-22 

9 

11-39 

•48 

11-41 

10 

11-67 

•24 

11-63 

The equation to the representative curve is 


y =-030# 2 —036% +11-06. 
42 










EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 
This curve is shown in Fig. 3. 



Fig. 3. Curve showing the relation between Memory and 
Emotion as measured by the Reaction Time. 

Here again we find that the words best and worst 
remembered have a somewhat higher affective 
value than those moderately well remembered. 

If we compute the percentage of failures in 
the reproduction test occurring among words 
scoring o, i, 2, etc. (20 subjects), and apply a 
similar method for obtaining a representative 
curve we get the figures given in Table VI. 


Table VI 


Words 

Failures in 
reproduction 

No. of 

Final values for 
representative 
curve 

scoring 

(per cent.) 

words 

(per cent.) 

0 

35-4 

82 

34*5 

1 

30-0 

10 

33-5 

2 

31-6 

38 

32-5 

3 

0-0 

10 

31-5 

4 

45-4 

11 

30-6 

5 

66-6 

3 

29-7 

6 

36*4 

22 

28-9 

7 

20-0 

15 

28-0 

8 

34-2 

44 

27*2 

9 

10-4 

48 

26*4 

10 

27*4 

234 

25-7 


The equation to the representative curve is 
y =-oi/[x 2 —S 8 x +29*73 
43 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


and the curve is shown in Fig. 4. 



Memory Value. 

Fig. 4. Curve showing the relation between Memory and 
Emotion as indicated by faults in the Reproduction Test. 


In this case it will be noticed that the curve is 
practically a straight line. There is a consider¬ 
ably greater percentage of failures in reproduc¬ 
tion among words easily forgotten than among 
those well remembered. Practically speaking, 
the ease with which the word is remembered is 
inversely proportional to the tendency towards 
failure in the reproduction test. 

D. Conclusions 

These results are entirely concordant with each 
other and clearly show two things : 

First, that memory for words is influenced by 
affective tone ; secondly, that, so far as the 
affective tone detected by the psycho-galvanic 
reflex is concerned, its influence may be exerted 

44 










EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


in two diametrically opposite directions ; the 
fact that a given word evokes well-marked 
affective tone may lead to its being better 
remembered than a less intensely toned word, 
or may lead to its being forgotten more quickly. 
Affective tone as shown by the galvanometer 
deflexion should, therefore, be regarded as of 
two kinds, one of which facilitates, while the 
other impedes, the remembering of words which 
it accompanies. 

On the other hand, the kind of affective tone 
which is shown by Jung's reproduction test 
is uni-directional in its effects and tends to 
impede the remembering of the words con¬ 
cerned. 

The results obtained from reaction times are 
less marked than those given by the galvano¬ 
meter deflexion or by the reproduction test, and 
at first sight appear to conform more closely to 
the former than the latter. That is to say, the 
affective tone shown by prolongation of reaction 
time appears almost equally likely to facilitate or 
to impede memory. But, for reasons which I 
shall give later, I regard this appearance as 
misleading and consider that prolongation of 
reaction time is mainly an indication of the kind 
of affective tone which tends to impede memory. 

I do not propose here to consider the relation 
of the two kinds of affective tone mentioned 
above to the varieties commonly described as 
‘ pleasant ’ and ‘ unpleasant.' This is a ques¬ 
tion which would take us very far and I think it 
wiser to adhere strictly to the necessary infer¬ 
ences from the experimental results. 

I shall, therefore, speak of that variety of 
affective tone which facilitates remembering as 
‘ positive' tone and of the opposite variety 

45 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


as ‘ negative' tone. To do this will imply no 
more than the bare fact already established that 
there is one kind of tone which aids the accession 
to consciousness of the ideas which it accom¬ 
panies and another which impedes it. In very 
many cases, of course, pleasant and unpleasant 
will correspond to positive and negative 
respectively, but there are many exceptions to 
this and I feel that the former antithesis is of 
little value for the understanding of mental 
processes, because the effects of pleasantness 
and unpleasantness are not invariable. 

The fact that the mean galvanometer deflexion 
for words scoring o is less than that for words 
scoring io (Table IV) is, in my opinion, due 
not to negatively toned words being less intensely 
toned than positively toned words and therefore 
giving a smaller deflexion, but to the fact that 
the words corresponding to this end of the curve 
contain a much larger proportion of ‘ in¬ 
different ’ words (i.e. words of light tone, giving 
a small deflexion) than those corresponding to 
the other end. The words possessed of strong 
negative tone which are immediately forgotten 
(and so make a low memory score) are more 
copiously ‘ diluted/ so to speak, with indifferent 
words, which are gradually forgotten in the 
course of the experiment, than are those 
possessed of strong positive tone which are well 
remembered and so make a high memory score. 

The effect of this will be to decrease the mean 
galvanometer deflexions (computed for a mixture 
of negatively toned and indifferent words), 
at the left-hand end of the curve corresponding 
to easily forgotten words. If we were to elimin¬ 
ate these ‘ indifferent ’ words, the curve would 
be far more nearly symmetrical than it actually 

46 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


is. Accordingly, I consider that the galvano¬ 
meter is approximately equally responsive to 
positive and negative affective tone. 

Similar considerations apply to the reaction 
time curve. The index to affective tone is, in 
this case, the prolongation of the reaction time 
and the effect of dilution with indifferent words 
is to depress the left-hand end of the curve. If 
this dilution were eliminated the curve would 
slope downward from left to right more steeply 
than it actually does. That is to say, prolonga¬ 
tion of reaction time is, in general, a sign of 
negative tone. 

The curve for the reproduction test shows, even 
as it stands, that failure in reproduction occurs 
mainly in the case of words easily forgotten— 
i.e. ‘ negatively toned ' words—and here again 
this effect would be considerably increased if it 
were not for dilution by indifferent words. 

This agrees with what is already known about 
the reproduction test, and the same comment 
applies, though less forcibly, to the preceding 
paragraph. 

One conclusion of some importance which can 
be drawn from the form of the curve for the 
galvanometer deflexions is that positive affec¬ 
tive tone and negative affective tone are equally 
definite and, so to speak, ‘ real ’ things. That 
is to say, positive tone does not consist merely 
in the absence of negative tone; nor does 
negative tone consist merely in the absence of 
positive tone. If either of these two latter 
alternatives were correct, the curve would not 
show a minimum value as it does ; in the first 
case it would slope downward throughout from 
left to right, in the second from right to left. 

This influence of affective tone on memory is 

47 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


relevant to the rate of forgetting. It is well known 
that the rate is much more rapid for the period 
immediately following the learning of the 
material concerned than it is for later periods. 
I consider that this effect is largely due to 
qualitative and quantitative differences in affec¬ 
tive tone between different parts of the material. 

A number of words, for example, all of which 
were accompanied by equal and similar affective 
tone, would be forgotten according to some 
unknown rule determined by other than affective 
causes—probably exponentially—whereas differ¬ 
ences of affective tone would result in the 
negatively toned words being forgotten sooner 
and the positively toned ones later than would be 
indicated by the rule. This would result in the 
number of words forgotten per unit of time (i.e. 
the rate of forgetting) being greater in the earlier 
stages of the process and lower in the later 
stages than would be the case if affective factors 
were not operative. In other words, if we could 
discount the effect of affective tone, the curve 
connecting the quantity of material remembered 
with the time elapsed since learning it, would 
approximate more closely to a straight line than 
it actually does. It seems probable that con¬ 
siderable light may be thrown on the nature 
and relative importance of the factors involved in 
memory by further investigation of this point. 


48 



Part II 


EXPERIMENTS WITH NONSENSE-SYLLABLES 

In view of the marked influence which was 
shown, in the preceding pages, to be exerted by 
affective tone on the remembering of ordinary 
words, I felt it would be interesting to attempt 
to ascertain experimentally whether any analo¬ 
gous effect could be observed in the case of 
nonsense-syllables. 

In order to do this I used the following method : 
Twenty nonsense-syllables were printed on cards 
in block letters about i| inches high and these 
were successively exposed to the subjects tested 
through a hole in a screen provided with a suit¬ 
able shutter. The subject was connected to 
the Wheatstone’s bridge and galvanometer, 
as already described, and was required to 
pronounce each syllable aloud as it was exposed. 
No associations were asked for and no reaction 
times were taken. 

This pronouncing of the syllables aloud was 
merely to ensure their receiving adequate atten¬ 
tion, and I found that a psycho-galvanic reflex 
was evoked by the process, as in the case of the 
word-association test. 

As soon as all the syllables had been exposed 
to a subject he was disconnected from the 
galvanometer and asked to write down as many 
of them as he could remember. He was not 
warned before the experiment began that he would 
be required to do this. 


49 


D 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


I thus abstained from warning the subject 
that he would be required to reproduce the 
syllables without further study, because I wished 
to ascertain which syllables tended to stick in 
his mind naturally, so to speak, and feared that a 
conscious effort to remember the syllables as 
they were exposed would interfere with this. 

The subject was next allowed about two 
minutes' rest and then asked to study, for the 
space of one minute, the same syllables written 
on small cards and laid in an irregular fashion 
on a table. He then immediately wrote down 
again as many as he could remember. This was 
repeated four times with intervals of about 
three minutes (including the time occupied by 
writing down the remembered syllables) between 
inspections. The arrangement of syllables on 
the table was altered after each inspection. 

Twenty subjects were examined. 

The average number of syllables remembered 
was : 


First reproduction, without learning 5-1 
After first inspection for 1 minute 8*7 
„ second „ 1 ,, 10*9 

„ third ,, 1 „ 12-1 

„ fourth „ 1 „ 13-8 

In view of the somewhat small number of 
subjects examined and the unusually great 
differences in the absolute magnitude of their 
mean deflexions, I thought it better to use a 
method for examining the relation between the 
deflexions given by the syllables and the ease 
with which they were learned somewhat different 
from that used in the case of words. 

I therefore expressed the mean deflexion given 
by the syllables reproduced on any occasion 

5o 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


by a subject as a percentage of the mean given 
by all the syllables for that subject. 

Thus in the case of subject No. N. 13 the mean 
deflexion for all syllables was 7-05 mm. ; the 
mean deflexion of those syllables reproduced the 
first time (without learning) was *50 ( =7% of 
the mean for all syllables) ; the mean deflexion 
of the syllables reproduced after the first inspec¬ 
tion of one minute was 11*5 ( =163%) ; of those 
reproduced after the second inspection, 10 09 
( =143%) ; after the third inspection, 8*43 
(=120%); after the fourth inspection, 7-18 
( = 102 %).' 

The final results are the means of these per¬ 
centages for all subjects. This method elimin¬ 
ates the danger of the results being dispropor¬ 
tionately affected by, say, one subject who 
happened to give exceptionally large deflexions. 

The mean percentages thus obtained are : 

Mean percentage for syllables repro¬ 
duced at the first time of asking 
without learning . . . 88*8% 

After the first inspection for 1 minute 108*9% 

,, second ,, 1 ,, 103*7% 

„ third „ 1 „ 100*0% 

„ fourth „ 1 „ 99*7% 

These results are curious and at first sight 
somewhat surprising, but although I should 
like to see the experiment repeated on a larger 
scale as a check, there can be no doubt that 
nonsense-syllables, when present to conscious¬ 
ness, are accompanied by an affective tone 

1 I add here a typical set of reactions in order to show the kind of 
differences between syllables commonly observed. 

11 234567 89 10 

Syllable No. . . \ n ]2 13 14 15 iq 17 i 8 19 2 0 

^ . . (5672323135 

Deflexion in mm. ( 71302 10574 

51 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


which differs considerably for the different 
syllables. This fact need not surprise us ; it 
merely means that nonsense-syllables, however 
carefully selected, are not wholly nonsensical; 
they are associatively connected, whether by 
assonance or by the mere form of the letters 
themselves, with ‘ systems of ideas ’ or ‘ groups 
of presentations * of some kind. Attention to 
the syllables tends to evoke these systems or 
groups by the ordinary process of association and 
their concomitant affective tone becomes oper¬ 
ative. 

There are, however, two remarkable features 
to be noted in these results. 

First, the syllables most easily retained (i.e. 
those which were reproduced without learning 
and without any deliberate effort to remember 
them) have a deflexion appreciably lower than 
the mean (only 88-8% of it, in fact). 

In the consideration of the results obtained 
with ordinary words I have shown reasons for 
supposing that there are two kinds of affective 
tone which are equally shown by the galvano¬ 
meter and that one facilitates while the other 
impedes the remembering of the material con¬ 
cerned. If nonsense-syllables in general were no 
more likely to arouse the one variety of affective 
tone than the other, we should expect the mean 
deflexion of the syllables most easily remembered 
to be markedly above the mean for all the 
syllables, because those accompanied by rela¬ 
tively intense positive tone should be remembered 
first. The opposite is, however, the case and it 
therefore appears that, in general, those syllables 
which give large deflexions are accompanied by 
the variety of affective tone which impedes their 
being remembered— i.e. ‘ negative ’ tone. 

52 



EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


Second, we find that this effect is reversed 
when the subject begins deliberately to learn 
the syllables ; the heavily toned syllables are 
then most easily remembered and the lightly 
toned are gradually added until the mean 
approximates to that for the whole series of 
syllables. 

This second effect is what one would expect 
on the assumption that the syllables were 
equally liable to be accompanied by positive or 
negative tone, and the results for the last four 
reproductions may be regarded as entirely 
normal. 

It is therefore necessary to explain, first, why 
nonsense-syllables should be more liable to 
arouse negative than positive affective tone 
and, second, why this effect should be reversed 
as the result of deliberate learning. 

The clue is probably to be found in the fact 
that syllables which gave large deflexions fre¬ 
quently seemed to amuse the subject. (Unfor¬ 
tunately the possible significance of this did 
not occur to me until after the experiment had 
been concluded and I have therefore no records 
on the point.) 

If it be true that amusement, especially 
amusement of an apparently causeless nature, is 
always or frequently due to the stimulation of a 
‘ complex ; and the discharge of the resultant 
emotion through laughter, etc., the first of these 
questions is easily answered. 

The amusement aroused by a nonsense- 
syllable is as apparently causeless as anything 
one could imagine and a ‘ complex ’ is essentially 
a system of ideas or ‘ constellation ’ of a nature 
incompatible with other systems and whose 
presence in consciousness is productive of con- 

53 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


flict which leads to its repression and, conse¬ 
quently, of ‘ negative ’ affective tone. 

The mere fact that nonsense-syllables are used, 
and the general situation, tend to amuse the 
subject and may be supposed, I think, to create 
some kind of a predisposition which increases 
the chance of individual syllables stimulating 
amusement-producing complexes in the un¬ 
conscious. Syllables which do this will arouse a 
certain amount of affective tone and, in so far 
as this will be negative, they will stand a smaller 
chance of being remembered than those which 
do not. 

The reason why the mean deflexion of the 
syllables remembered after the first inspection 
is higher than that for the whole series is fairly 
obvious on this view. The subject at this 
stage is making, for the first time, a deliberate 
effort to learn the syllables, and his interest 
in the experiment and his desire to co-operate 
effectively in it will invest the remembering 
of them with a certain temporary, but none the 
less positive importance. When he comes to 
a syllable which previously amused him he 
will experience to some extent the same affec¬ 
tive state as he did when it was first presented 
to him. This will serve to differentiate it from 
the others ; he will pay special attention to it; 
it will be invested with associations ( i.e . of 
having previously amused him) which the others 
do not possess ; the fact of having forgotten 
it will strike him as odd and stupid and, in 
short, he will now be, consciously, specially 
anxious to remember it, instead of, uncon¬ 
sciously, specially anxious to forget it. 

It is easy to understand how this acquired 
positive interest may outweigh the previous 

54 


EXPERIMENTS ON MEMORY 


negative tone which was effective so long as 
there was no deliberate effort to learn. 

I wish to make it clear that I do not attach 
any great importance to these nonsense-syllable 
experiments and am well aware that the results 
may be accidental and illusory. An attempt 
to throw further light on the point was recently 
made by Miss K. M. Banham, working at Cam¬ 
bridge under the direction of Dr Myers, and 
the results were entirely negative. Miss Ban- 
ham's procedure differed, however, from mine 
in one or two particulars, notably in the fact 
that the subjects, instead of being asked to 
look at the syllables, lying haphazard on a 
table, were required to repeat them in time 
with the beat of a metronome. This appears 
to me to give less freedom as regards retention 
than my method and may have something 
to do with the negative results to which some¬ 
what unfavourable experimental conditions may 
also have contributed. In any event, I do not 
wish to stress this nonsense-syllable experi¬ 
ment in the least, but it seems just worth 
reporting for the sake of completeness. 


Summary 

(i) The object of the experiments was to determine the 
nature of the influence exerted in memory by affective 
tone by exact quantitative methods. 

(ii) The affective tone was measured by (a) reaction time 

in word-association tests ; (6) the psycho-galvanic 

reflex. The Jung reproduction test was also used. 

(iii) The memory value was measured by successive repetitions 

of a learned selection of stimulus-words. 

(iv) The reflex results showed a bi-directional influence of 

affective tone on memory. 

55 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


(v) There are therefore two kinds of affective tone of 
opposite properties as regards memory. These are 
named ‘ positive ’ and ‘ negative ’ tone. 

(vi) The reproduction test was uni-directional and indicated 

* negative ’ tone. 

(vii) The reaction time was mainly, but not wholly, an indica¬ 

tion of ‘ negative ’ tone. 

(viii) Similar experiments with nonsense-syllables gave some¬ 
what analogous results. 


56' 


CHAPTER III 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX- 
INDICATORS 

I propose in this chapter to describe an investi¬ 
gation undertaken with the object of ascer¬ 
taining, with more precision than has yet been 
done, the properties and significance of certain 
complex-indicators and combinations thereof. 

The word-association test has already proved 
of great value in enabling us to work out the 
differences between various mental conditions, 
and there is no reason to suppose that the 
limit of its usefulness has yet been reached. 
I believe, on the contrary, that it is capable of 
considerable further development, and that the 
use of the psycho-galvanic reflex in conjunc¬ 
tion with it is especially calculated to increase 
its power as a method of research and also, very 
probably, of diagnosis. 

The material obtained from a word-association 
test consists, first, of the reaction words them¬ 
selves whose form may throw light on the 
psychological type to which the subject belongs, 
and second, of observations on the ‘ complex- 
indicators ’ evoked by the various words. These 
two divisions overlap to some extent; on the 
one hand some forms of reaction word are 
themselves often complex-indicators—repetition 
of stimulus - words, ‘ stereot}^pes,' etc.—while, 
on the other, certain properties of the complex- 
indicators may be relevant to the question of 
psychological type, e.g. the ratio of the arith- 

57 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

metic mean to the probable mean of the reaction 
time. 

Each of these groups of data is amenable to 
mathematical treatment, and it is just this 
possibility of applying a purely objective and 
quantitative process of analysis to the content 
of the individual mind that makes the method 
so uniquely valuable. 

The precision and reliability of the results 
which it yields must necessarily depend on the 
accuracy with which we interpret the indica¬ 
tions which it affords ; it follows that the more 
thoroughly we understand the properties of 
complex-indicators and the relations between 
them, the more satisfactorily shall we be able to 
analyse any mental condition to which we apply 
the method. 

Many complex-indicators have been noted ; 
the more important are : prolongation of re¬ 
action time, disturbance of reproduction in 
the ‘ reproduction test/ too-large psycho-gal¬ 
vanic reflex, reaction with two or more words 
when the subject usually reacts with one word, 
repetition of the stimulus-word, misunderstand¬ 
ing of the stimulus-word, faults, slips of speech, 
translation into a foreign language, reaction 
with an otherwise unusual foreign word, inter¬ 
polation of ‘ Yes ’ or some other exclamation 
before or after the reaction, unusual content of the 
reaction, perseveration in essence and in form. 1 

I am here concerned only with the first 
three of these, viz. : 

(i) Reaction Time. 

(ii) The Galvanometer Deflexion of the psycho-galvanic 

reflex. 

(iii) Disturbances in the reproduction test. 

1 Jung, Studies in Word Association, p. 405. 

58 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


Note .—All reaction times were measured, and 
are given, in fifths of seconds. 

Of these the first has received by far the 
greatest attention. The only work with which I 
am acquainted on the use of the psycho-galvanic 
reflex as a complex-indicator is that of Bins- 
wanger 1 ; and some experiments on the ‘ B. C. A/ 
case by Prince and Petersen. 2 Even the repro¬ 
duction test has not gained the recognition it 
deserves. I shall give below reasons for believ¬ 
ing it to be one of the most reliable of complex- 
indicators. 

In the preceding chapter I showed that the 
remembering of a list of words is markedly 
influenced by the affective tone of the words 
and, further, that the affective tone may tend 
either to promote or to impede memory and must 
therefore be of two opposite kinds, which I have 
termed ‘ positive ’ and ‘ negative ’ respectively. 
I now propose to assume this as established 
and to use the ‘ memory value ’ of the stimulus- 
word of a reaction as a guide to the affective 
quality of that reaction. 

At this point I must guard against the possible 
criticism that I am arguing in a circle, as who 
should premise A in order to deduce B and 
then premise B in order to deduce A. Such a 
criticism would be unjustified. My only assump¬ 
tion with regard to my work on memory was 
that the complex-indicators concerned did, in 
general, indicate affective tone—an assumption 
which, I imagine, no one would wish to dispute. 
I then showed experimentally that memory is 
influenced by affective tone and that two 
varieties of the latter must be postulated in 

1 Jung, Studies in Word Association, pp. 446-530. 

2 Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1908. 

59 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


order to account for the effects observed: 
these conclusions, again, are entirely in harmony 
with general psychological knowledge. I also 
found that somewhat different, albeit con¬ 
gruent, results were obtained according to the 
complex-indicator used to detect and measure 
the tone. 

I now assume : 

(i) That complex-indicators show affective tone. 

(ii) That memory is influenced by the latter. 

(iii) That there are two opposite varieties of tone. 

Of these (i) was the initial assumption while 
(ii) and (iii) are not only acceptable on general 
grounds but also necessary deductions from my 
experimental results. 

I now propose to investigate the differences 
between complex-indicators, not to prove their 
common quality of indicating affective tone. 

First of all I wish to repeat that positive 
affective tone is as ‘ real ’ a thing as negative 
tone. So far as I am aware this is a matter 
which has been wholly overlooked by all who 
have worked with the association test. The 
reason is obvious enough; this branch of 
psychological research has always been closely 
connected with psychopathology, and those 
who have studied it have approached it from an 
essentially pathological standpoint. Now, in 
psychopathology the negatively toned, 1 conflict- 
producing complex is all important; this, the 
true ‘ complex/ is the fans et origo mail in 
pathological conditions and it is this, there¬ 
fore, which the psychopathologist is anxious to 

1 N. B .—‘ Negative ’ tone is, by definition, the kind of tone 
which tends to drive ideas from consciousness, i.e. to lead to their 
‘ repression.’ 


6o 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


identify and eradicate. 1 Positively toned con¬ 
stellations do not interest him and he has not 
considered the possibility of detecting them. 
Their existence ought not, however, to be 
ignored by the psychologist who is concerned 
with the general theory of mental activity. In 
studying the changes in mental content corre¬ 
sponding to different conditions it would clearly 
be unwise to ignore any opportunity of identi¬ 
fying as many elements, or kinds of elements, 
as possible, and if it can be shown that posi¬ 
tively toned constellations and not ‘ complexes ’ 
only can be detected by suitable means, this 
fact is likely to be of value. 

In Chapter II, I showed that the psycho¬ 
galvanic reflex shows positive affective tone as 
well as negative, and that disturbances in the 
reproduction test were predominantly indicative 
of negative tone; prolongation of reaction 
time I surmised to be a less definite indicator 
than either of the others—but to be, on the 
whole, more indicative of negative than of 
positive tone. 

These opinions were based on the general 
form of the curves connecting memory with 
intensity of affective tone as measured by the 
indicators concerned ; I have since succeeded 

1 It is rash, perhaps, to suggest the addition of yet another term 
to the already so difficult vocabulary of psychology, but I think 
that the word ‘Endogenic,’ meaning ‘conflict-producing,’ might 
sometimes be useful in this connexion. Some authorities use 
the word ‘ complex ’ in a purely pathological sense, others as 
synonymous with ‘ constellation ’ and to denote any relatively 
stable group of ideas. (Cf. Bernard Hart, The Psychology of In¬ 
sanity.) The trend of general usage seems to be in the direction of 
the former practice and this will doubtless become universal in due 
course. Meanwhile the qualifying adjective ‘ eridogenic,’ which 
perfectly suggests the essential features of the repressed complex, 
might advantageously be used in cases of doubt. 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


in bringing out the points in question more 
clearly by another method. 

The material used is that gathered in the course 
of the experiments on memory. Of the 50 sub¬ 
jects then examined 22 performed the repro¬ 
duction test; of these I exclude one whose 
reaction times were not recorded and three 
who failed to complete the memory part of the 
experiment. We are thus left with 18 subjects 
with regard to whom observations were made on 
all three complex-indicators and who also com¬ 
pleted the memory test. 

Any reaction given by one of these subjects 
might be accompanied by any one of the follow¬ 
ing eight arrangements of complex-indicators : 


(i) None .... 

(ii) A ‘ too-long ’ reaction time only 

(iii) A ' too-large ’ galvanometer 

deflexion only 

(iv) Disturbance in reproduction only 

(v) A ‘ too-long * time coupled with a 

‘ too-large ’ deflexion 

(vi) A ‘ too-long ’ time coupled with a 

disturbance in reproduction 

(vii) A ‘ too-large ’ deflexion coupled 

with a disturbance in reproduc¬ 
tion .... 
(viii) All three of these . 


Call this class ‘ O * 

c 'p > 


y y yy 


yy >} 


yy yy 


G’ 

R’ 


yy yy 


* TG* 


yy yy 


‘ TR’ 


yy yy 

yy yy 


‘ GR' 

‘ TGR ’ 


(Note .—By ‘ too-long * time or ‘ too-large ’ 
deflexion I mean a time or deflexion larger than 
the Probable Mean, which is that value of the 
variate above and below which variates are 
equally numerous; it is also known as the 
‘ median/ Under the heading of ‘ disturbance 
in reproduction ' I include (i) complete failure 
to remember the original reaction word ; (ii) 
substitution of a different word ; and (iii) pro¬ 
longed hesitation in giving the reproduction.) 

62 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


I next divided the 518 words learned by the 
18 subjects into these eight classes and cal¬ 
culated the mean memory value 1 for each class. 
The results are given in Table VII. 


Tabee VII 






Classes in 



No. of 

Mean 


order of 

Mean 

Indicator 

words in 

Memory 


Memory 

Memory 

class 

class 

value 

Rank 

value 

value 

O 

138 

67 

3 

G 

7.4 

T 

60 

6-7 

3 

TG 

7*2 

G 

83 

7-4 

1 

O 

6-7 

R 

38 

5-7 

8 

T 

6-7 

TG 

89 

7-2 

2 

GR 

6-6 

TR 

29 

6-0 

6 

TR 

6-0 

GR 

36 

6*6 

5 

TGR 

6-0 

TGR 

45 

6-0 

6 

R 

5-7 


Mean memory value for all reactions analysed : G’70. 

It must be remembered that the memory 
value is only a rough test of whether the affec¬ 
tive tone evoked by a given word is positive or 
negative; there is a marked tendency for 
negatively toned words to drop out early and 
consequently to show a low memory value, and 
conversely; but there are innumerable for¬ 
tuitous and external causes which may interfere 
with this and cause a word to be remembered or 
forgotten for reasons quite other than its 
intrinsic merits. In spite of this the main 
indications of the table are quite unmistakable 
and distinctly striking. 

First, I would call attention to the fact that 
the one complex-indicator whose presence is 
uniformly unfavourable to memory, i.e. which 
uniformly indicates negative tone, is disturbance 
in the reproduction test. The four classes in 

1 The ‘ memory value,’ as already explained, may range from 0 
for words never remembered to 10 for words remembered without 
difficulty on each of five occasions. See pp. 38 and 39. 

63 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


which this indicator figures are the last four on 
the list as regards memory value. 

If we treat these results somewhat after the 
fashion of a team-race, giving one mark for 
presence in the class occupying the first position, 
two for the second, and so on, the indicator 
getting the most marks will be that which is 
most closely associated with the presence of the 
variety of affective tone which tends to impede 
memory, with negative tone to wit, and con¬ 
versely. The marks thus gained are : 

‘ Too-large ’ galvanometer deflexion 15 
‘ Too-long ’ reaction time . . 18-5 

Disturbance in reproduction . . 26-5 

I conclude, therefore, that this last pheno¬ 
menon is not only a complex-indicator—and 
even this has been questioned 1 — but the com¬ 
plex-indicator par excellence. 2 

The appearance of class R (disturbances in 
reproduction only) at the bottom of the list 
requires some explanation ; one would expect 
this position to be occupied by class TGR on 
the ground that the more indicators are present 
the more intense the affective tone is likely to be. 
The discrepancy may be due to the large influ¬ 
ence on this rather small class of one subject 
(No. 18) whose learned words included seven 
characterised by disturbance of reproduction 
only and scored a total memory value of only 
24. This may represent some abnormality on 
the part of this subject whom, indeed, I rather 
suspect on other grounds. If these reactions 
are eliminated from the class its mean memory 
value rises to 6-3 and the order then becomes : 

1 Cf. Jung, loc. cit., p. 396. 

2 Using ‘ complex ’ in its common pathological sense and not 
as synonymous with ‘ constellation.’ 

64 



SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


Rank 

Table VIII 

Indicator 

class 

Mean Memory 
value 

1 

G 

7-4 

2 

TG 

7-2 

3 

O 

6-7 

4 

T 

6*7 

5 

GR 

6-6 

6 

R 

6-3 

7 

TR 

6-0 

8 

TGR 

6-0 


I, personally, regard this order as more correct 
than the first, but this is a detail of small import¬ 
ance. 

The next point to be noted is that class T 
shows precisely the same mean memory value 
as class O. That is to say : Prolongation of 
reaction time alone is not necessarily a complex- 
indicator ; it is only significant if accompanied 
by other indicators. This is not at all contrary 
to accepted views ; it is commonly recognised 
that reaction time may sometimes be prolonged 
on account of purely ‘ intellectual' difficulties, 
arising from the rarity of the stimulus-word, 
etc., without the prolongation being due to a 
complex. 

I suspect, however, that this matter is not 
quite so simple as it might appear at first 
sight. It will be noticed that the mean memory 
value of the class TG is markedly above that 
for class O or for all classes ; classes containing 
‘ T ' have a memory value below this only when 
they also contain ‘ R/ The obvious conclusion 
is that prolongation of reaction time is a sign 
of negative affective tone, i.e. a complex- 
indicator, only when accompanied by disturbance 
in reproduction. I do not think that this con¬ 
clusion is sufficiently in conformity with general 

65 E 


The measurement of emotion 

experience of reaction time as a complex- 
indicator to pass unchallenged, even if we 
remember, as we should, that we are here dealing 
with general tendencies rather than with rigid 
rules. No one would suggest, of course, that 
every prolongation of reaction time, however 
small, is necessarily a complex-indicator, for 
it is universally recognised that only the more 
salient prolongations are significant. But, on 
the other hand, I doubt whether any psycho¬ 
therapist accustomed to work with the associa¬ 
tion test would be willing to admit that all 
cases in which a significantly too-long time 
is not accompanied by a disturbance in reproduc¬ 
tion are to be regarded as accidental lapses from 
a general rule. That there is a strong tendency 
for significant prolongations of reaction time to 
be accompanied by disturbances in reproduction 
has, it is true, been shown by Jung 1 ; but 
it should be conceded, in my judgment, that 
prolongation of reaction time alone may on 
occasion be a true complex-indicator, quite apart 
from the presence, or merely accidental absence, 
of disturbance in reproduction. If this be 
correct we should expect to find the mean 
memory value of class T somewhat below that 
for class O and it is necessary to account for 
the fact that it is not. 

I think the explanation is that the class T 
really consists of three sub-classes, namely : 

(i) Genuinely ‘ indifferent * words evoking no appreciable 
affective tone either positive or negative ; these 
would fall in class O were it not for the fact that 
their reaction time is prolonged for reasons of 
intellectual difficulty and the like. Their mean 
memory value would be 6*7. 


1 Studies in Word Association, pp. 396, 899. 

66 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


(ii) Negatively toned words whose prolonged reaction 

time is significant, possibly accompanied by some 
of the miscellaneous complex-indicators enumerated 
on page 58. If these could be separated out from 
the remainder their mean memory value would 
presumably be less than 6-7. 

(iii) Positively toned words, which through lack of in¬ 

tensity or for other reasons do not produce a too- 
large galvanometer deflexion, but whose reaction 
time is delayed for the same ‘ intellectual ’ reasons 
as are operative in sub-class (i). These words will 
have a mean memory value greater than that of 
the indifferent words and will thus counteract the 
effect of the words in sub-class (ii). 

In spite of this I am strongly of opinion that 
the statement at the beginning of this section 
is in general true, that prolongation of reaction 
time is not likely to be significant unless accom¬ 
panied by other indicators, and that the propor¬ 
tion of words belonging to sub-classes (ii) and 
(iii) is small. 

It is also probable that some positively toned 
words may be accompanied by too-long times 
for the following reasons : 

(a) When a word which evokes markedly agreeable 
associations, which will as a rule be positively 
toned, is called out to a subject it seems very 
possible that his reaction time may be prolonged 
simply on account of the number of equally 
acceptable images which crowd in upon him ; he 
suffers, in fact, from an embarras des vichesses. 

(, b) In such circumstances there will also be a tendency 
for his attention to be diverted from the experiment 
and to dwell on the pleasing ideas conjured up ; 
this momentary inattention may prolong the reac¬ 
tion time. 

(c) The subject may not wish to reply with the first word 
which occurs to him although it may be intensely 
positive to him and in no way connected with 
a complex. For example: the stimulus-word 

67 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


‘ woman ’ would be very likely to evoke the image 
of the subject’s fiancee, an image which we may 
suppose to be accompanied by strong and definitely 
positive affective tone. The first word to occur 
to him would naturally be her name ; but he might 
not care to give this as a reaction word in the 
presence of the experimenter. This would delay 
the reaction time in spite of the positive tone 
accompanying the word, but it would be ridiculous 
to suggest that such a prolongation of the time 
should be considered as a complex-indicator. 

This agrees with the form of the curve which 
I obtained in the course of my memory experi¬ 
ments connecting reaction time with memory 
value. I found that the mean reaction time for 
the words least well remembered was greater 
than that for words better remembered and that 
there was a slight tendency for the time to be 
prolonged in the case of the best-remembered 
(i.e. most positively toned) words. 

In view of the foregoing considerations we 
may regard the position of class T as quite 
natural. 

Perhaps the most important feature of these 
results is the position of class G at the head of 
the list. It is closely followed by class TG, and 
the fact that each of these classes has a mean 
memory value handsomely in excess of that for 
class O (no complex-indicators) proves that they 
consist mainly of positively toned words. This 
amply confirms my view that the psycho¬ 
galvanic reflex detects and measures positive 
affective tone as well as negative, and shows 
further that it does so in circumstances—those 
prevailing with regard to words in class G, to 
wit—in which other indicators do not. 

Class G, in fact, consists mainly of words of 
comparatively intense positive tone, unaccom- 

68 




SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 

panied by prolongation of time or disturbance 
in reproduction ; if tlie galvanometer had not 
been used there would have been nothing to 
distinguish them from indifferent words in class 
O. In these circumstances O and G, T and TG, 
R and GR, TR and TGR would have been 
combined and the results would have been : 


Table IX 


Class 

Composition 

No. in Class 

Mean Memory 
value 

O 

O+G 

221 

7-0 

T 

T+TG 

149 

7-0 

R 

R+GR 

74 

6-2 

TR 

TR+TGR 

74 

6-0 


Here again the dominance of disturbances in 
reproduction as indicators of negative tone is 
very noticeable, as also is the non-significance 
of too-long times unaccompanied by other 
signs. 

The superior resolving-power, so to speak, 
which is gained by the method when the gal¬ 
vanometer is used is obvious if we compare these 
last results with those given in Table I. 

The high memory value of class TG is readily 
accounted for by, and constitutes a powerful 
vindication of the suggestions put forward on 
pages 66 and 67 above. The class consists of 
words accompanied by strong positive tone 
whose reaction time is prolonged for one of the 
reasons there enumerated. 

It seems reasonable to suppose that the influ¬ 
ence of positively toned words on the reaction 
time will be approximately proportional to the 
intensity of their tone ; or, at any rate, that 
prolongation of the time will occur with more 
intensely, rather than with less intensely toned 

69 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


words. We should therefore expect that the 
mean intensity of tone in class TG would be 
greater than in class G and, inasmuch as this 
tone is positive, that the mean memory value 
would also be greater. 

The former is the case as will be seen later. 
That the latter is not may, I think, be explained 
as follows : complex-indicators, other than those 
here analysed, are rare in my material, but no 
fewer than nine are to be found in class TG ; 
the mean memory value of these is 5-2 and 
if they are eliminated from the class the mean 
memory value of the remainder is 7-4, which 
raises it to the position of equal first with class 
G. (Actually, if we take the mean to another 
place of decimals we have—mean for class 
TG =7-425, mean for class G =7-41.) 

Whether this alteration is legitimate is a 
matter of opinion into which subjective factors 
enter largely. I, personally, think that it is, and 
I am strengthened in this view by considerations 
of the relative intensity of the tone in different 
classes as shown by the mean magnitude of the 
complex-indicators. 

Since the Probable Means of the reaction times 
and galvanometer deflexions vary considerabfy 
in different subjects it might be unwise simply to 
calculate the arithmetic means of the times and 
deviations in the different classes and to use 
these as measures of the intensity of affective 
tone ; to do so would involve a danger of the 
classes being dominated by a few subjects 
whose probable means are unusually high. 
I prefer to express each value as a percentage of 
the corresponding Probable Mean and to use 
the mean of these percentages as the measure 
of intensity. I think this plan might profitably 

70 



SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 

be adopted in all similar work which may need 
to be compared with results obtained by other 
experimenters. It is equivalent to reducing all 
subjects to terms of a ‘ standard subject * whose 
Probable Mean is ioo units. 

In this particular case it makes no difference 
which method we use. The results obtained by 
both are shown below : 


Table X 


Indicator 

Mean percentage of P.M. 

Arithmetic 

—>■ 

Mean 

Class 

RT 

GD 

RT 

GD 

TG 

151 

269 

17-4 

17-5 

G 

— 

246 

— 

15-5 

T 

130 

— 

13-4 

_ 

O 

— 

—— 

— 

. 

GR 

— 

235 

— 

13-9 

TR 

132 

— 

13-3 

— 

TGR 

170 

242 

17*5 

14-0 

R 

— 

— 

— 

— 


This shows that class TG is more intensely 
toned than either of classes T or G, and class 
TGR than either TR or GR ; this applies both 
to reaction time and galvanometer deflexion ; 
which is just what we should expect. The dis¬ 
crepancy between the percentage of the Probable 
Mean and the Arithmetic Mean in the case of 
the reaction time in classes T and TR is negli¬ 
gible. 

It is possible to apply a further check to the 
results. If the words learned form a reason¬ 
ably representative sample of the whole of the 
material available there ought to be some degree 
of correspondence between the mean values 
of the reaction time and the galvanometer 
deflexion, in the various classes, when calculated 
from all the reactions, and the values yielded by 

7 1 





THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


the learned words only. The correspondence 
will not be quantitatively exact because in the 
case of my first 25 subjects, of whom 15 are 
included in the 18 here concerned, I selected 
to be learned the 15 words giving the largest 
galvanometer deflexion and the 15 giving the 
smallest. This was done with the idea of giving 
affective tone the best possible chance of exhibit¬ 
ing any influence on memory which it might 
have, and this circumstance affects the quanti¬ 
tative relations between the ‘ sample ' and the 
remainder of the material in a somewhat com¬ 
plicated way. 

The comparatively large number of data here 
available makes it unnecessary to use the per¬ 
centage method. The values of the arithmetic 
means for the whole material are : 


Tabee XI 


Indicator 





Class 

No. in class 

A.M.ofR.T. 

A.M. of G.D. Proportions 

TG 

239 

15-6 

14-51 

Positively toned 

G 

307 

— 

12-4 1 

31*4% 

T 

O 

255 

480 

14-6 

\ Neutral 42-2% 

GR 

105 

— 

11-2 


TR 

119 

13-9 

— 

Negatively toned 

TGR 

107 

16*8 

11-7 

26-4% 

R 

129 

— 

- 


The correspondence between these values and 
those given in the preceding table is obviously 
very close. 

I have entered into these details because I 
want to show how very concordant the results 
are and how those obtained by one method of 
treating the data harmonise with those obtained 
by another. 

When we remember how rough a test of the 
quality of affective tone the ‘ memory value ’ of 

72 



SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


a word must necessarily be in practice, and how 
many accidental causes may distort and obscure 
its indications, it will be admitted, I believe, 
that this concordance is remarkable and justifies 
us in regarding the results as possessed of a high 
degree of reliability. 

A few miscellaneous observations concerning 
complex-indicators may be noted here. 

In the 1741 reactions given by the 18 subjects 
dealt with above there are 460 disturbances in 
reproduction ; this is equal to 26-9% as com¬ 
pared with Jung’s “33% not reproduced.” 1 
It is not clear whether this last figure includes 
associations reproduced with great hesitation; 
presumably it does. I attribute the difference 
between these two values to the fact that among 
the 28 subjects dealt with by Jung there were 
25 nervous and mental patients of different 
kinds, whereas all my subjects were normal. 

Jung found that “ on the average, 62*2% of 
the absent reproductions lie, as regards the 
reaction times, above the probable mean ” ; 
I find only 49-2%. This difference is probably 
due to the same cause. Abnormal subjects 
will, in general, possess more numerous and 
stronger complexes than my normal subjects, 
and the more intense tone aroused by the 
complex-striking stimulus-words—indicated in 
both cases by the disturbance of reproduction— 
will tend to prolong the reaction time more 
frequently in the case of the abnormal subjects. 

In view of the evidence I have brought for¬ 
ward above, which shows that disturbance in 
reproduction is more intimately associated with 
negative affective tone than are either of the 
other two complex-indicators discussed, I do 

1 Studies in Word Association, p. 401. 

73 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


not think it is necessary to reproduce from my 
data the figures analogous to those which Jung 
gives in favour of regarding this phenomenon 
as significant. It may be pointed out, however, 
that even among his so largely abnormal sub¬ 
jects, it is probable that a certain number 
of reaction times were prolonged on account of 
positive affective tone aroused by the stimulus- 
word, or on account of intellectual difficulties. 
If Jung had been able to distinguish between 
such prolongations and those due to negative 
tone his figures would, presumably, have borne 
out his contention even more strongly than 
they did. 

There can be no doubt whatever that for 
quantitative work the galvanometer deflexion 
is a far more valuable indicator than the reac¬ 
tion time. It is not under voluntary control and 
is not affected to any appreciable extent by non¬ 
significant intellectual factors such as sometimes 
prolong reaction time. Moreover, the absolute 
magnitude of the deflexions can, in general, 
be magnified to any extent desired and read 
with a corresponding degree of precision. 

Still more important is the fact that the 
magnitude of the galvanometer deflexion appears 
to be approximately proportional to the in¬ 
tensity of the corresponding affective tone, 
however great the deflexion. This is not the case 
with the reaction time. It is obvious on a priori 
grounds that there must be a point at which 
prolongation of reaction time ceases to be pro¬ 
portionally significant. No one would suggest, 
for example, that a time of one minute, say, in a 
series whose Probable Mean is two seconds, is 
likely to be the result of an affective state 
15 times as intense as that responsible for a 

74 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 

time of four seconds. But such considerations 
cannot be extended to the galvanometer de¬ 
flexions. Table XII shows the ioo words of 
my list arranged in the order of magnitude of 
their mean reaction times, calculated for the 
whole of the 50 subjects examined ; Table XIII 
shows the words similarly arranged on a basis 
of their mean galvanometer deflexions. 

There can be no doubt that the order of words 
given by the galvanometer represents their 
relative affective value far more accurately than 
that given by the reaction time. 


Table XII 



Mean 


Mean 

Mean 


Mean 

Word 

R.T. 

Word 

R.T. 

Word 

R.T. 

Word 

R.T. 

1 . Name 

18-2 

26 . Luck 

13-1 

51 . Wound 

11-8 

76 . Pond 

10-8 

2 . Friend 

17-4 

27 . Long 

13-1 

52 . Cold 

11-7 

77 . Tree 

10-8 

3 . Despise 17-3 

28 . State 

13-1 

53 . Salt 

11-7 

78 . Finger 

10-8 

4 . Make 

15*9 

29 . Silly 

12-9 

54 . Paper 

11*7 

79 . Give 

10-8 

5 . Sad 

15-8 

30 . Stalk 

12*8 

ss. Divorce 11*6 

80 . Doctor 

10-8 

6 . Proud 

15-4 

31 . Pray 

12-8 

56 . Beat 

11-6 

81 . Motor 

10-8 

7 . Home 

15-2 

32 . Money 

12-8 

57- Bi g 

11*6 

82 . Clean 

10-8 

8 . Nasty 

14-9 

33 . War 

12-8 

58 . Yellow 

11-6 

83 . Rich 

10-7 

9 . Marry 

14-8 

34-Try 

12-8 

59 . Cook 

11*5 

84 . Table 

10-6 

10 . Habit 

14-7 

35- Ba S 

12-8 

60 . Go 

11-5 

85 . Sing 

10-4 

11 . Pity 

14-5 

36 . Insult 

12-8 

61 . Bury 

11-5 

86 . White 

10-4 

12 . Happy 

14-5 

37 . Carry 

12-6 

62 . Wait 

11*5 

87 . Pencil 

10-4 

13 . Angry 

14*2 

38 . Ask 

12-5 

63 . Water 

11*4 

88 . Old 

10-4 

14 . Bring 

14-2 

39 . Sick 

12*5 

64 . Hunger 

11-4 

89 . Bird 

10-3 

15 . Plum 

14-0 

40 . Wine 

12-5 

65 . Glass 

11-4 

90 . Walk 

10*3 

16 . Dance 

13-8 

41 . Choice 

12-5 

66 . Travel 

11-3 

91 . Work 

10-3 

17 . Worry 

18 . Kiss 

13-7 

42 . Woman 12*4 

67 . Flower 

11-3 

92 . Carrot 

10-2 

13*7 

43 . Speak 

12-3 

68 . Bed 

11-3 

93 . Chair 

10-2 

19 . Brother 13*6 

44 . Fight 

12-2 

69 . Evil 

11-3 

94 . Ink 

9-9 

20 . Family 

13-6 

45 . Swim 

12-1 

70 . Child 

11*2 

95 . Book 

9-8 

21 . Wicked 

13*G 

46 . Jump 

47 . Cow 

12-1 

71 .Frog 

11-1 

96 . Head 

9*6 

22 . Afraid 

13*5 

12-1 

72 . Ship 

11-1 

97 . Horse 

9-6 

23 . Dress 

13*4 

48 . Street 

12-0 

73 . Lamp 

11-0 

98 . Green 

9-4 

24 . Dead 

13-4 

49 . Village 

11*8 

74 . Blue 

10-9 

99 . Needle 

9-3 

25 . Love 

13*3 

50 . Bread 

11-8 

75 . Box 

75 

10-9 

100 . Shut 

9-2 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Table XIII 



De- 


De- 


De¬ 


De- 

Word flexion 

Word flexion 

Word 

flexion 

Word flexion 

i. Kiss 

72-8 

26 . Wine 

30-9 

51 . Street 

24-9 

76 . Try 

20-0 

2 . Love 

59*5 

27 . Luck 

30-8 

52 . Beat 

24-6 

77 . Plum 

20-0 

3 . Marry 

58-5 

28 . Green 

30-4 

53 . Carry 

24-5 

78 . Village 

19*9 

4 . Divorce 

50-8 

29 . Ask 

30*0 

54 . Wait 

24*4 

79 . Rich 

19-9 

5 . Name 

48-7 

30 . Make 

29-9 

55 . Speak 

24-3 

80 . Salt 

19-8 

6 . Woman 

40-3 

31 . Pity 

29-7 

56 . Box 

23-9 

81 . Bird 

19*6 

7 . Wound 

38-0 

32 . Choice 

29-7 

57 . Nasty 

23*6 

82 . Bread 

19-6 

8 . Dance 

37-4 

33 . Dress 

28-5 

58 . Jump 

23-5 

83 . Old 

19-3 

9 . Afraid 

36-8 

34 . Wicked 

28-4 

59 . Paper 

23-2 

84 . Cow 

19-0 

10 . Proud 

36-7 

35 . Dead 

27-6 

60 . Lamp 

23*1 

85 . Bring 

19-0 

11 . Habit 

36*6 

36 . Sing 

27-6 

61 . Cold 

23-0 

86 . Clean 

18-8 

12 . Money 

35-6 

37 . Horse 

27-1 

62 . Long 

22-7 

87 . Ink 

18-7 

13 . Fight 

35-0 

38 . Evil 

27-0 

63 . Go 

22-6 

88 . Shut 

18-6 

14 . Child 

35-0 

39 . Doctor 

26-9 

64 . Cook 

22-3 

89 . Table 

18-5 

15 . State 

34-8 

40 . Stalk 

26-2 

65 . Yellow 

22-2 

90 . Work 

18-3 

16 . Despise 

34-7 

41 . Book 

26-1 

66 . Chair 

21-7 

91 . Carrot 

18-2 

17 . War 

34-1 

42 . Travel 

25-9 

67 . Finger 

21*5 

92 . Bury 

18-0 

18 . Family 

33-6 

43 . Sick 

25-8 

68 . Sad 

21-4 

93 . Hunger 17-9 

19 . Happy 

33-4 

44 . Bag 

25-8 

69 . Tree 

21-2 

94 . White 

17-8 

20 . Pray 

33-1 

45 . Water 

25-6 

70 . Needle 

21-1 

95 . Glass 

17-6 

21 . Worry 

33-0 

46 . Home 

25-4 

71 . Blue 

20-6 

96 . Give 

16-7 

22 . Insult 

32-5 

47 - Big 

25-3 

72 . Ship 

20-5 

97 . Flower 

16T 

23 . Friend 

32-2 

48 . Bed 

25-2 

73 . Motor 

20-4 

98 . Pond 

15-5 

24 . Head 

31-7 

49 . Silly 

25-2 

74 . Frog 

20-2 

99 . Pencil 

15-4 

25 . Angry 

31-5 

50 . Brother 

25-2 

75 . Walk 

20-1 

100 . Swim 

14-2 


The following points may be noted : 

(i) The highest value in the galvanometer series is 

5T2 times as great as the lowest; in the time series 
it is only 1-98 times as great. The ‘ resolving 
power * of the galvanometer is, therefore, rather 
more than 2 £ times that of the reaction time. 

(ii) In accordance with this we find in the reaction time 

series seven pairs of words whose mean time is 
the same, seven such groups of three words each, 
five of four words each, and two of seven words 
each. In the galvanometer series there are only 
eight such pairs and one group of three. 

The galvanometer therefore differentiates grada¬ 
tions of affective tone with much greater delicacy 
than does the reaction time. 


SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


(iii) The first six words on the galvanometer list are 
Kiss, Love, Marry, Divorce, Name, Woman. Of 
these, five are obviously closely connected with sex- 
life and the other, Name, is probably constellated 
by the same ideas. These six words stand out head 
and shoulders above the remainder of the series, 
as I pointed out in my paper on memory. ( N.B . 
The effect is very noticeable if the series is repre¬ 
sented graphically.) Their mean value is 145% of 
that of the seventh word and 220% of that of the 
Probable Mean of the series. 

Compare with these the first six words of the time 
series. Name, 1 Friend, Despise, Make, Sad, Proud. 
This is not nearly so homogeneous a group ; its 
mean value is only 110% of the seventh word and 
only 141% of the Probable Mean of the series. 

This marked difference must be due to some 
quality, common to all members of the homo¬ 
geneous group, which the galvanometer picks out 
better than the reaction time. This can only 
be a common high affective value. 


A further indication of the comparative un¬ 
trustworthiness of the reaction time as a quanti¬ 
tative indicator is afforded by the fact that the 
coefficient of correlation between the mean 
galvanometer deflexion and mean reaction time 
for the series of words is increased if we reduce the 
excessively long times. 

The coefficient of correlation for the two series 
as they stand is +-470. If we eliminate all 
reaction times more than 100% greater than 
the arithmetic mean time of the subject con¬ 
cerned, and substitute for each a value equal to 
the arithmetic mean plus 100%, the coefficient 
of correlation rises to +-488. (Example: The 
arithmetic mean of the reaction time for subject 

1 For the probable reason of the very long time for this word, 
compare page 39. The first name to occur is likely to be that of a 
wife, fiayicte, lover or other person of sexual significance to the 
subject. 


77 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


No. 8 is 10-5, liis reaction time for reaction 
84 is 24 ; I substitute 21, that is to say 100% 
more than the arithmetic mean, for this value 
when computing the mean time for reaction 84— 
stimulus-word ‘ Afraid '—for the purposes of the 
new correlation.) 

This proves that ‘ much-too-long ’ times are 
not significant in proportion to their length ; 
for these two series only correlate in so far as 
the magnitudes of both are due to a common 
cause, intensity of affective tone, to wit; it 
follows that any systematic alteration to one 
series which increases the coefficient of correla¬ 
tion does so by making it conform more closely 
to the variations in the working of the common 
cause. 

It would be possible on these lines to determine 
at what point, in general, continued prolonga¬ 
tion of reaction time ceases to be significant; 
but this would take us very far and is not a 
point of sufficient interest to be worth investi¬ 
gating. 


Summary 

(i) Prolongation of reaction time alone is not a reliable 
complex-indicator. In a large number of cases 
(the whole of class TG mentioned above and part of 
class T) it is due to positive affective tone. 

(ii) Disturbance in reproduction is by far the best 
complex-indicator—or, at least, the most reliable 
indication of negative tone ; I personally regard 
these two expressions as synonymous. 

(iii) The galvanometer detects positive tone as well as 

negative and in many cases (the whole of class G) 
does so when the reaction time does not. 

(iv) Intensity of affective tone, whether positive or 

negative, increases both reaction time and galva¬ 
nometer deflexion. In general the most posi¬ 
tively toned words are those with too-iong times 

78 



SOME PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX-INDICATORS 


and too-large deflexions ; next come those with 
too-large deflexions only. Words with no complex- 
indicators, or with too-long times only, are mostly 
indifferent. Words with disturbance in the repro¬ 
duction are almost invariably negatively toned. 
Words having too-long times and too-large de¬ 
flexions are, on the whole, more intensely toned, 
whether positively or negatively, than those having 
too-long times or too-large deflexions only. 

(v) For quantitative work the galvanometer-deflexion 

of the psycho-galvanic reflex is markedly superior 
to the reaction time. 

(vi) The ‘ resolving ’ power and consequently the scope 

and utility of the word-association method is 
greatly increased if the galvanometer is used 
in addition to the reaction time. The experi¬ 
menter can divide his reactions into eight classes, 
all possessed of quantitatively and qualitatively dis¬ 
tinct attributes, instead of into four onty. 

(vii) The memory test enables us to determine the more 

important relative properties of these classes. It 
is a very laborious method and somewhat crude, 
but the results it yields show a remarkable concord¬ 
ance and it is probable that the conclusions arrived 
at are reliable. 


79 


CHAPTER IV 


THE RELATION BETWEEN COMPLEX-INDICA¬ 
TORS AND THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 

In the preceding chapter I investigated the 
relations which exist between the affective tone 
aroused by a stimulus-word and the ‘ complex- 
indicators ' which accompany the reaction. I 
did this with regard to three indicators, 
namely: 

(i) * Too-long ’ reaction time. 

(ii) ‘ Too-large ’ psycho-galvanic reflex 

(iii) Disturbance of reproduction in Jung’s reproduction 

test. 


I showed that, if we indicate the presence of a 
‘ too-long ’ time by T, of a ‘ too-large ’ reflex by 
G, of disturbance in reproduction by R, and 
the absence of any indicator by O, the relation 
between the affective tone of words and the 
various classes into which they can be divided 
according to their indicators is as follows : 

Classes 

G and TG consist in general of positively toned words. 

O and T ,, ,, neutrally ,, ,, 

R, TR, GR and TGR ,, ,, negatively ,, ,, 

The question now arises as to whether there is 
any relation between the affective tone of a word 
and the form of the association, i.e. by co-ordina¬ 
tion, co-existence, predicate, etc. 

Sundry attempts have been made by various 

80 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


workers to investigate this point by determining 
the mean reaction time of the different classes 
of association, but without leading to any very 
uniform or satisfactory results. This is not 
surprising for, as I have shown, prolongation of 
reaction time alone is likely to be a very unsatis¬ 
factory and misleading guide ; it may be pro¬ 
longed on account of negative tone, of compara¬ 
tively intense positive tone, or of purely intel¬ 
lectual factors which have practically nothing 
to do with affective tone at all. It is necessary 
to discriminate between positively, neutrally and 
negatively toned words before we can hope 
to throw any helpful light on the question. I 
have attempted to do so in this paper. 

I wholly agree with Jung’s statement that 
“ Everyone who does practical work in associa¬ 
tion has found the classification of the results 
the hardest and most tedious part.” Many 
schemes have been devised ; none are wholly 
satisfactory. If the system used is very elabor¬ 
ate and refined the results are likely to be 
unduly influenced by subjective factors and an 
immense mass of material is needed in order to 
give a reasonably large number of data in the 
rarer sub-classes ; if it is too coarse we are liable 
to miss interesting points which a more detailed 
analysis might have brought to light. The 
additional labour entailed by the use of a very 
elaborate system also greatly reduces its practical 
value. 

I therefore feel it necessary to give some 
account of the system which I have adopted 
and of the principles which have guided me in 
applying it. 

I may observe in passing that the first and 
most important principle which should be re- 

81 F 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


membered throughout all work of this kind is 
that, as far as possible, the classification should 
be in accordance with the workings of the 
subject's mind and not the experimenter's. A 
rigidly formal system based on purely logical 
or grammatical considerations is likely to ignore 
just those idiosyncrasies which we wish to study, 
and so to prove of little value. I shall discuss 
this question of the proper basis for classifica¬ 
tion in more detail at a later stage. 

The system which I finally adopted, after a 
few preliminary trials, is based on that given 
by Jung. 1 

The primary division is between ‘ inner ' and 
‘ outer ' associations. The criterion which I have 
tried to bear in mind in distinguishing between 
the two is perhaps best expressed by saying that 
in the case of ‘ outer ' associations the con¬ 
nexion between the ideas in the subject's mind 
has been formed for him, so to speak as a result 
of objective experience, whereas ‘ inner ' associa¬ 
tions are a result of what I may term the 
‘ digestion ' of experiences by the mind itself. 

For example, the associations Cow—field, or 
Wine—bottle, are outer associations ; one is 
accustomed to observe cows in fields and wine in 
bottles. Such associations are given ready-made, 
so to speak, and do not demand any subjective 
mental work for their formation. The same 
applies to verbal associations such as Long— 
short, Black — white, which are constantly 
‘ given ' in conjunction. On the other hand, 
such associations as Cow—animal, Frog—nasty, 
Child—nice, are to some extent dependent upon 
processes of analysis, synthesis, systematisation 
and so forth in our minds. This last idea can 

1 Studies in Word Association, pp. 13-38. 

82 





THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


be clearly recognised in Jung’s classification of 
associations by co-ordination into : 

(i) Coadjunction (a) By a common supraconcept. 

(6) By similarity. 

(c) By inner relationship. 

(cl) By outer relationship. 

(ii) Subordination. 

(iii) Supraordination. 

(iv) Contrast (other than habitual verbal contrasts). 

(v) Co-ordination of undetermined quality. 

This principle is, I think, reasonably unam¬ 
biguous and on a priori grounds seems the kind 
of distinction which is likely to prove helpful. 

Its application presents certain difficulties, 
however, when we come to the consideration of 
the predicate type of association. Jung classes 
all varieties of predicate reaction together as 
inner associations, but I have grave doubts as to 
whether this is either legitimate or profitable. 

I quite agree that predicates containing an 
element of personal opinion should be so 
regarded. But it seems to me that such re¬ 
actions as Wine—red, Water—wet, Tree—green, 
which I may term ‘ simple ’ predicates, are just 
as much ‘ outer ’ associations as Wine—bottle, 
Water—pond, Tree—wood. They are equally 
‘ given ready-made ’ as a part of objective 
experience and are equally lacking in any product 
of subjective mental activity. Similar con¬ 
siderations also apply in some measure to very 
many cases of ‘ subject relationships ’ and 
‘ object relationships,’ e.g. Jump—horse, Swim 
—fish, Make—bread. There are, however, cer¬ 
tain border-line cases, such as Speak—explicitly, 
which are difficult to deal with, as they clearly 
contain a strong personal or truly subjective 
element. I shall return to this point later, but 

83 








THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

for the present I conform to Jung's arrange¬ 
ment. 

Before proceeding to describe and exemplify 
the system I have used, I ought to say that I 
have throughout treated reactions as reversible. 
That is to say, I have not discriminated between 
the stimulus and reaction words ; Tree—green, 
for example, has been treated just the same as 
Green—tree, Horse—ride as if it were Ride— 
horse, and so forth. 

The classes into which I finally divided the 
words were : 


A. Inner Associations 


I. Co-ordination. This class is substantially 
identical with that of Jung. It is the vaguest 
and least satisfactory of the classes and I find 
a tendency in myself to relegate to it associations 
which I cannot place with certainty in any other 
class. But Jung himself allows a certain 
elasticity 1 and I have reduced this tendency to a 
minimum by omitting altogether from the classi¬ 
fication a few words about which I felt real 
doubt. 

I do not feel it necessary to give examples of 
this class as my divergence from Jung is in¬ 
appreciable and even so occurs almost exclusively 
in his last and vaguest sub-class. 


II. Predicates. I recognise here five sub¬ 
classes which are easily distinguishable. 

(a) Simple predicates. By this I mean reac¬ 
tions in which the stimulus-word is 
qualified by the reaction word, or vice 
versa , in a way which contains no element 

1 Studies in Word Association, p. 21. 

84 





THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


of personal opinion or judgment of value. 
Examples : 

Tree — green. Go — quickly. 

Lamp — electric. Carrot — red. 

Swim —fast. Try —hard. 

(b) Predicates expressive of personal opinion or 
judgment of value. This class needs no 
further definition. Examples : 


Love 

— good. 

Work 

— dull. 

Kiss 

— good. 

Marry 

— worse. 

Silly 

— bad. 

Chair 

— useful. 

Frog 

— unpleasant. 

Old 

— beautiful 

Home 

— useless. 

Travel 

.— pleasant. 


(e) Predicates of ‘ subject relationship.’ In this 
class the two associated words refer to 
some activity of which one is the subject. 
Examples : 


Frog — jump. 
Horse — run. 
Bird — fly. 
Carry — horse. 
Needle — prick. 


Sing — girl. 
Tree — grow. 
Go — boy. 
Swim — fish. 
Jump — horse. 


(d) Predicates of ‘ object relationship.’ Here 
the two words relate to some activity of 
which one is the object. Examples : 


Stalk 

— deer. 

Despise 

— man. 

Wine 

— drink. 

Love 

— man. 

Kiss 

— me. 1 

Make 

— bread. 

Bring 

— sheep. 1 

Book 

— read. 

Bury 

— dead. 

Carry 

— weight. 


(e) Predicates defining place, time, means, etc. 
Examples : 

Pray — church. Walk — promenade. 

Sing — King’s Chapel. Fight — fists. 

Marry — August. Go — back. 

Beat —stick. Cook —kitchen. 

Travel — abroad. House — live. 


1 These are good examples of the border-line cases mentioned 
above. 

85 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


III. Causal dependence. This class consists 
of associations in which one idea is causally 
dependent on the other or is a common conse¬ 
quence of it. I have extended it to include 
cases in which the idea expressed by one word 
may reasonably be regarded as a necessary 
antecedent to that expressed by the other. 
Examples : 


Ask — reply. 
Lamp — light. 
Rich — money 
Worry — exams. 
Clean — wash. 


Give — have. 
Afraid — danger. 
Angry — pain. 
Marry — child. 
Sad — lonely. 


B. Outer Associations 

IV. Co-existence. Associations which arise 
from the experience of the ideas concerned in 
temporal or spatial juxtaposition, including 
cases in which one word represents a part of 
the other. Examples : 


Cow 

— field. 

Head 

— hair. 

Table 

— chair. 

Ink 

— pen. 

Tree 

— leaves. 

Paper 

— pencil. 

Home 

— father. 

Motor 

— carburettor. 


Wine — bottle. 


I also include here associations in which one 
word forms an essential part or concomitant of 
an activity denoted by the other. Examples : 

Pencil — write. Try — rugger. 

Swim —river. Jump —sports. 

Ride — horse. 

V. Paraphrases, Synonyms, etc. This is a 
slightly widened version of Jung’s * identity ’ 
class. The characteristic feature is that the 
reaction word does not possess a meaning 
radically different from that of the stimulus- 

86 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


word ; substantially the same idea is represented 
in a slightly altered form. Examples : 


Try — endeavour. 
Beat — strike. 

Say — speak. 
Worry — trouble. 
Happy — pleased. 


Shut — closed. 
Evil — bad. 
Child — baby. 
Village — town. 
Street — road. 


VI. Verbal forms . I have here recognised 
three sub-classes. 


[a) Reactions determined by experience of the 
words as forming part of common expres¬ 
sions and phrases in daily use. Examples: 


Long 

White 

Walk 

Sing 

Plum 

Shut 

Rich 

Old 

Big 


— short. 

— black. 

— run. 


— song. 

— apple . 1 

— open. 

— poor. 


— young. 

— small. 

Go 


Choice — Hobson’s. 
Needle — Cleopatra’s. 
Fight — good. 

Name — number . 1 
Hunger — thirst. 

Clean — dirty. 

Silly — fool. 

Wine — women. 
Insult — injury. 

— come. 


(b) Word-completion. A word is added which, 
with the stimulus-word, forms a com¬ 
pound word. Examples: 

Wine —merchant. Ink —stand. 

Wool — gathering. Motor — car. 

Green — ever. 


( c) Clangs , rhymes and word-completion by 
syllables which cannot stand alone. Ex¬ 


amples : 

State — estate. 
Pray — prayer. 
Habit — habitat. 
Friend — friendless. 
Silly — silliness. 


Speak — speech. 
Fight — fate. 
Dress — undress. 
Luck — duck. 
Family — families. 


1 From recent experiences in H.M. Forces. 

87 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


C. Other Classes 

VII. ‘ Indirect ’ associations. I feel that I 
may be criticised for making a special class for 
these associations, contrary to the opinion of 
some authorities. None the less I believe that 
it is desirable to do this. By ‘ indirect' associa¬ 
tions I do not mean “ that mode of reaction 
which is only understandable by the assumption 
of a middle term different from the stimulus— 
or reaction—word.” 1 Or rather I do not mean 
merely this, although, in a sense, some such 
reactions may belong to my ‘ indirect ’ class. 

The principle by which I have been guided 
in assigning words to this class is this : most 
associations are readily comprehensible by the 
experimenter; even although they may not 
be what he would have given himself or would 
have expected, he can easily see the kind of 
connexions which result in their formation. 
There are some, on the other hand, in which the 
reaction word seems utterly unrelated to the 
stimulus-word and not to be accounted for by 
perseveration of ideas aroused by a preceding 
reaction. These must result from some past 
experience peculiar to the individual subject. 

It is just such associations which, on account 
of their intimate personal origin, are likely to be 
of the very first importance in practical work and 
it is therefore especially well worth while to 
ascertain whether they have any characteristic 
affective properties. 

I, personally, have found no difficulty in 
assigning associations to this class and have, 
indeed, done so as a rule with considerably more 


1 Jung, loc. cit., p. 29. 
88 



THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


confidence than I have felt in several other 
instances. I give the following examples : 


Frog — emotion. 
Blue — donkey. 
Frog — crowd. 
Make — rabbit. 
Sing — red. 
Dead — coat. 
Long — badge. 
Brother— must. 
Bed — bury. 
Sing — feel. 


Pity — Blackpool. 
Kiss — Whitstable . 1 
Glass — back. 

Proud — have. 

Carrot — brutal. 
Marry — die. 

Habit — send. 

Ask — lonely. 
White — experiment. 
Wine — preparation. 


It will be seen later that the words in this 
class are, as a matter of fact, distinguished by 
marked affective properties. This class should 
clearly be included under the main heading of 
‘ Inner Associations ’ but, for the moment, I 
prefer to keep it separate. 

VIII. This is not a wholly separate class. I 
have counted in it a number of f freaks ’ some 
of which were also allotted to other classes. 
It includes the most conspicuous examples of 
class VII ; cases when the reaction consists of 
several words instead of the usual single word ; 
reaction by ‘ stereotypes/ that is to say the same 
reaction word repeated many times in the course 
of the experiment ; reaction by interjections, 
etc., etc. 

When I had classified the reactions into these 
eight classes I counted how many in each class 
were accompanied by no complex - indicator, 
how many by ‘ too-long ’ reaction time only, 
how many by ‘ too-large ’ deflexion only, how 
many by both, and so on. The results are shown 
in Table XIV. 

1 This is presumably equally eligible for class II (c), but it is 
very personal and I prefer to place it here. 

89 


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THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


In this table, as in those which follow, the 
ordinary figures show the actual observed 
number of reactions ; the italic figures show the 
number, computed to the nearest integer, which 
we should expect to find if chance only were at 
work. 

This last number is obtained as follows : if we 
have N objects of which n 1 belong to class p ly 
n 2 to class p 2y n 3 to class p z , etc. (so that In = 2 V) 
and of which m 1 also belong to class q ly m 2 to 
class q 2) m z to class q z , etc. (so that 1m = N), 
then by the ordinary theory of probability 
we should expect the number belonging to both 
class p x and q y to be 

n r x m v 

sc y 

TT' 


Thus 287 reactions out of 1658 fall in class I 
and 301 out of 1658 in class G ; we should there¬ 
fore expect to find that 2 ^^| QI =52, very 

nearly, of the members of class I were also 
members of class TG. 

It will be noticed that although in many 
cases the agreement between the actual numbers 
and the ‘ probable ' numbers is very close, there 
are others in which there is a marked difference ; 
these are the cases in which the connexion 
between affective tone and association form 
shows itself. 

In view of the evidence which I brought 
forward in the preceding paper, I regard it as 
incontestable that the affective classes G and TG 
chiefly contain positively toned words, classes O 
and T mainly indifferent words and classes R, 
GR, TR and TGR mainly negatively toned 
words. I do not consider, however, that it is 

91 




I 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

practicable to discriminate further than this at 
present, or to avail ourselves of the quantitative 
differences which I gave reason for supposing to 
exist between the classes which make up these 
three main groups. 

I therefore simplify Table XIV by classifying 
the reactions, with regard to their affective tone, 
into 4 positively toned/ ‘ neutral' and ‘ nega¬ 
tively toned/ The result is shown in Table 
XV. 

The behaviour of the various classes can be 
more clearly seen here than in the original table. 
I regard the indications afforded by this table 
as reliable ; in most cases we have a good number 
of reactions in a class and it must be remembered 
that the crudity and liability to fortuitous inter¬ 
ference which made the memory test, used in the 
preceding paper, so insensitive a criterion, so to 
speak, of the quality of affective tone, no longer 
apply here. Once we have determined the 
qualitative properties of the different indicator 
classes we can say with considerable assurance 
that the reactions belonging to them possess 
those affective properties. 

Class I (Co-ordination) shows a slight but 
distinct tendency towards toned as opposed to 
neutral reactions ; the actual figures (98 and 79) 
for both positively and negatively toned re¬ 
actions are greater than those indicated by 
probability (91 and 71 respectively), while the 
actual figure for neutral reactions is well below 
the probable figure (no to 124). 

Class II (Predicates) is worth considering in 
some detail, especially in view of the comments 
I made about it above. 

Sub-class ( a ), consisting of ‘ simple ’ predicates, 
shows a slight tendency to favour neutral (105 

92 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


' actual to 99 probable'), at the expense 
of negatively toned reactions (52 ‘ actual' to 
57 ‘ probable '). 

II (b )—predicates implying personal opinions 
or judgments of value—has a marked excess of 
negatively toned and a marked deficiency of 
neutral reactions (33 ‘ actual' to 19 ‘ probable ’ 
and 16 ‘ actual to 32 probable ’ respectively). 

II (c)—subject relationship—conforms exactly 
to the probable values. 

II ( d )—object relationship—like II (a), some¬ 
what favours the neutral reactions at the expense 
of the negatively toned. 

II ( e )—definition of time, place, means, etc.— 
is a very small class and its deviations from the 
probable values appear to me to be insignifi¬ 
cant. 

In fact II ( b ) shows a characteristic tendency 
not found in any other form of predicate reaction. 
It should be regarded, in my opinion, as essen¬ 
tially an ‘ inner ’ association, to which general 
type its affective properties conform, while II 
(a) is psychologically indistinguishable from 
the emphatically ‘ outer ’ association of co¬ 
existence. II ( c ) and (d) are less obviously 
‘ outer ' but in the majority of cases they con¬ 
form much more nearly to this group than to 
‘ inner ' associations. On the whole I consider 
that they ought to be classed as ‘ outer/ II ( e) 
I think should be retained in the ‘ inner' 
group. 

To insist on such widely differing types of 
reaction as II (a) and II ( b ) being kept in the same 
class simply because they are both grammatical 
predicates is, surely, mere pedantry. 

Class III (Causal dependence) is again rather 
small; its tendency is to favour the posi- 

93 







THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


tively toned reactions at the expense of the 
neutral. 

Class IV (Co-existence) is the first of the indis¬ 
putably ‘ outer ’ types. It is a large class and 
shows an unmistakable tendency towards neutral 
reactions at the expense of the negatively 
toned. 

Class V (Paraphrases, synonyms, etc.) shows 
a slight and probably negligible tendency in 
favour of negatively toned reactions at the 
Expense of the other two. 

Class VI (a) (Verbal reactions depending on 
common phrases, etc.) is again large and shows 
a very marked tendency towards neutral re¬ 
actions, mainly achieved at the expense of the 
negatively toned. 

Classes VI ( b ) and (c) are exiguous and their 
divergences from ‘ probable ' values are small. 
They should probably be included in class 
VI {a). 

In Class VII (Indirect reactions) the tendency 
is unmistakable 1 ; there is a great preponder¬ 
ance of negatively toned reactions at the 
expense of both the positively toned and the 
neutral, especially the latter. 

Class VIII (‘ Freaks ’) is very small, but I think 
that the marked excess of negatively toned 
reactions (16 ‘ actual to 8 probable’) is 
almost certainly significant. 

We may now simplify the classification still 
further and compare the whole of the inner 
associations with the outer. 

1 In this class there are 23 reactions actually observed in the 
‘ indicator ’ class TR ; the ‘ probable ’ number is 6. The prob¬ 
ability of this discrepancy being due to chance is about 2 3 x 10- 7 . 


94 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


Table XVI 


Inner Outer 

associations associations Class VII Totals 


Positively toned 

297 

215 

16 

528 


279 

224 

27 


Neutral 

351 

352 

11 

714 


380 

298 

37 


Negatively toned 

230 

127 

59 

416 


219 

172 

22 


Totals 

878 

694 

86 

1658 


It is clear that inner associations contain a 
marked preponderance of positively and nega¬ 
tively toned reactions and a marked lack of 
neutral reactions ; outer associations favour the 
neutral reactions chiefly at the expense of the 
negatively toned. 

As I have already observed, I consider that 
class VII should be included among inner 
associations. I have kept it distinct up to this 
point, partly because its type of association is, 
by definition, somewhat obscure and partly 
because I wanted to show the tendencies of inner 
associations without there being any question of 
their being unduly influenced by the inclusion 
of reaction forms which might appear of dubious 
eligibility. When class VII is thus included the 
figures become : 


Table XVII 



Inner 

Outer 


associations 

associations 

Totals 

Positively toned 

313 

215 

528 

306 

224 


Neutral 

362 

352 

714 


417 

298 


Negatively toned 

289 

127 

416 

241 

172 


Totals 

964 

694 

1658 


95 







THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Inner associations show the same character¬ 
istics as before, but more markedly with regard 
to negatively toned reaction and less so with 
regard to positively toned. 

Finally, I shall assume that my contentions as 
regards predicate forms are warranted and shall 
transfer classes II (a), II (c) and II (d) to the 
outer associations. The figures then become : 


Tabus XVIII 



Inner 

Outer 


associations 

associations 

Totals 

Positively toned 

183 

345 

528 


176 

354 


Neutral 

173 

541 1 

714 


240 

475 


Negatively toned 

199 

217 

416 


139 

274 


Totals 

555 

1103 

1658 


This again greatly increases the relative pre¬ 
dominance of negatively toned reactions among 
the inner associations ; it slightly reduces the 
relative differences between actual and probable 
figures for outer associations of all three kinds 
—they are, in fact, slightly diluted by the addi¬ 
tion of a number of reactions distributed in close 
accordance with probability. 

It may be convenient to keep these predicate 
classes II (a), II (c) and II (d) with the other 
predicates for certain purposes, but I think 
there can be no doubt that if we are considering 
reactions from the affective point of view, their 
proper place is with the outer associations. 
And, after all, it is the affective tone which we are 

1 The chance of this difference between the actual and probable 
figures being accidental is about one in two million. See Appendix 
III. 

96 





THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


seeking in all practical applications of association 
methods ; reactions unaccompanied by it are 
of no great value, they do not lead to significant 
complexes of pathological importance or even to 
constellations of theoretical interest. 

The affectively toned reactions are the important 
reactions , especially—for clinical work—those 
which are negatively toned. If, therefore, we 
are desirous of ‘ summing up ' a subject in the 
way which is sometimes attempted by study of 
the ‘ reaction-type/ it is important that we 
should adopt the system of classification which 
will most clearly show the relative number of 
reactions constellated by ‘ complexes 1 — i.e. 
which are negatively toned—and that we should 
know which classes are likely to contain the 
greatest proportion of such reactions. 

The best way to do this would be to use all 
three complex-indicators, viz. : reaction time, 
psycho-galvanic reflex and the reproduction test. 
A complete analysis into the ‘ indicator classes ' 
can then be made. But it may well be that 
external circumstances may not permit of the 
application of all, or indeed of any, of these tests. 
In such a case we have only the form of the 
reactions to fall back on and I think it is clear 
that the relative proportion of complex-deter¬ 
mined reactions will be much more clearly 
shown if we adopt the system of classification 
which I have here advocated (viz. separation of 
predicate forms into ‘ outer ' and ‘ inner ' and 
the inclusion of all the very indirect and ‘ per¬ 
sonally ’ constellated reactions of my class VII 
—under the head of ‘ inner associations'), 
than if we adhere to the scheme used by Jung. 
The proportion of inner associations to outer will 
then afford some measure of the subject's 

97 G 






THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


‘ complexity'—if I may coin a word to denote 
possession of complexes. 

My figures show that for normal subjects the 
proportion of inner to outer associations is 
almost precisely i to 2 and any proportion much 
greater than this is likely to mean a correspond¬ 
ingly large number of negatively-toned, complex- 
determined reactions and therefore to be signi¬ 
ficant. The most important classes from this 
point of view are II (b) and VII. Class I is 
somewhat significant, although much less so, 
and the figures for class VIII show that * freaks ' 
are very noteworthy. 

I do not claim that this method is anything 
but very rough, only that it is likely to be less 
misleading than existing methods. 

At the risk of prolixity and repetition I wish to 
emphasise the point of view indicated in the 
preceding paragraphs. My contention is that 
no system of classifying reactions can be of any 
value unless it is based on the nature of the 
psychical processes which determine those re¬ 
actions rather than on the verbal or grammatical 
form which they may take. The different 
forms are only of interest in so far as they can be 
correlated with significant psychical conditions 
of one kind or another ; apart from this they 
are merely academic and sterile. 

But we are beginning to realise with increas¬ 
ing clearness that affective tone is the dominant 
factor in all mental activity ; complexes owe 
their power and their very existence solely to 
its operation ; its distribution, so to speak, is 
the all-important determinant of the mental 
state of the individual. Consequently any sound 
scheme of classification must, in the last analysis, 
be based upon the affective tone concomitant 

98 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


to the reactions concerned and affective con¬ 
siderations must override all others of a formal 
and academic nature. 

Before proceeding to the interpretation of 
these results I wish to enlarge for a moment 
upon the concept of ‘ positive ’ and ‘ negative ’ 
affective tone which I have introduced into these 
studies. I do not propose to discuss them 
exhaustively here but I feel that it will be wise 
to consolidate my position and to guard against 
possible criticism by recalling the terms in which 
I defined the words. 

It is important that the distinction drawn 
between the two kinds of affective tone should be 
a valid distinction and truly relevant to mental 
processes as they actually occur ; also that the 
criterion chosen for establishing the presence of 
each kind of tone should be of a nature to effect 
such a valid discrimination. 

It will be remembered that I defined negative 
tone as that variety which tends to repel atten¬ 
tion, or to impede the accession to conscious¬ 
ness of the ideas to which it is concomitant ; 
positive tone was defined as the opposite to this. 

I think it will be conceded that the operation 
of negative tone, so defined, is clearly identical, 
in nature though not necessarily in intensity, 
with the process commonly known as ‘ repres¬ 
sion.’ The operation of positive tone is, of 
course, simply the reverse of this. 

I identified these two varieties of tone as 
concomitant to certain classes of reaction by 
measuring quantitatively the effects of their 
operation ; that is to say I actually measured the 
tendency for the stimulus-words of the reactions 
concerned to have their accession to conscious¬ 
ness impeded— i.e. to be ‘ forgotten.’ 

99 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


I submit that this purely empirical procedure 
yields results which are strictly relevant to 
mental processes as actually met with and, 
notably, to those varieties of them which are 
particularly studied by psychopathologists. 

After this digression we may return to the 
consideration of the results recorded in Tables 
XIV-XVIII. 

I may as well say at the outset that I have 
doubts as to whether the study of ‘ reaction 
types ’ based upon any system of classifying 
reactions is likely to prove of great practical 
value apart from research work. But Jung 
and other authorities appear to consider it 
important and potentially valuable and it may 
prove to be so for certain purposes— e.g. diagnosis 
—but only in so far as we properly understand 
the significance of the different forms of reaction. 

Inspection of Table XV shows that the 
reaction classes may be divided into two main 
groups: 

(i) Those which favour ‘ toned ’ reactions at the expense 

of ‘ untoned.’ The principal numbers of this 
group are classes I, II ( b ), II ( e ), III, VII and 
(VIII). 

(ii) Those which favour ‘ untoned ’ reactions at the 

expense of ‘ toned.’ The chief examples here are 
II ( a ), II {d), IV and VI ( a ). 

Class V is rather indeterminate and conforms 
so closely to the probable figures that I shall 
not consider it further ; classes II (c), VI (b) 
and VI (c) are too small to afford a reliable 
basis for discussion. 

Of the classes comprising the first group all 
are incontestably ‘ inner ’ associations ; in the 
second group classes IV and VI (a) are equally 
undoubtedly ‘ outer ' associations and I have 

ioo 




THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


given reasons for holding that classes II (a) 
and II (d) should also be reckoned as ‘ outer/ 

All this is in accordance with expectation ; 
outer reactions are obviously of a more super¬ 
ficial type than inner, the stimulus-word does 
not penetrate so deeply into the mind, so to 
speak, because a suitable reaction is easily 
found. This is rather a loose way of speaking ; 
it would perhaps be more accurate to say that 
the subject follows the line of least resistance 
and gives the reaction which combines the 
maximum of accessibility with the minimum of 
negative tone. The more accessible, the more 
familiar, the more superficial an idea associated 
with the stimulus-word is, the greater the 
chance of ‘ dodging * negative tone. Or, better, 
the accessible and familiar associated words are 
just those which, by virtue of the association 
having been formed in countless varying con¬ 
texts, possess no specific tone. 

This is well borne out by the figures for the 
principal classes. The most superficial class of 
all is class VI (a), consisting of reactions con¬ 
ditioned by common phrases, antitheses, etc. 
Such reactions can take place with the minimum 
of attention to the true ‘ inwardness ' of the 
stimulus-word; they are as nearly as possible 
purely automatic. The actual number of neutral 
reactions in this class (160) is 131% of the 
probable number (122), while the toned reactions 
only amount to 77% of the probable number. 

Class IV (Co-existence) is less superficial; the 
formation of such reactions requires rather more 
attention, although no contemplation of the 
attributes of the object 1 suggested by the 

1 V.S.—Stimulus-words giving rise to co-existence reactions are, 
of necessity, almost invariably concretes. 

IOI 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


stimulus-word is necessary. The corresponding 
figures to those quoted above are: neutral 
reactions 122%, toned reactions 77%. 

Class II (a) (Simple Predicates) again demand 
for their formation somewhat closer attention 
still to the stimulus-word, for the simple predi¬ 
cate is essentially an apprehended and named 
attribute. The figures here are 105% and 95% 
respectively. 

Class II (d) does not conform unless it be 
reckoned more superficial than II (a ). It is 
difficult to say whether this is correct, but 
it is obviously not a preposterous suggestion, 
and the figures (109% and 92%) differ but 
slightly from the preceding ones. 

Similarly with the inner reactions we find that 
the tendency for tone to show itself is sub¬ 
stantially proportional to the extent to which the 
reaction is personal and peculiar to the subject, 
or in other words to the degree of its ‘ inner¬ 
ness.' 

Thus class I (Co-ordination) is comparatively 
superficial. The figures are: neutral reactions 
89% of the probable number, toned reactions 
109%. 

Class III (Causal Dependence) is distinctly 
of a more ‘ inner' nature. The figures are 
72% and 122%. 

Class II (b) is clearly much more personal, 
consisting as it does of reactions containing an 
expression of personal opinion. The figures are 
50% and 137% respectively. 

Class VII is by definition the most intimately 
personal of all (cf. section 4 (c)) and accordingly 
we find that the figures are 30% and 153%. 

Class II (e) is rather small and not very easy 
to place : in my judgment it should probably 

102 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


be located between I and III. The figures are 
82% and 110%. 

Class VIII is much too small to give reliable 
figures in this connexion; inasmuch as it 
contains a number of reactions taken from 
class VII and a few ‘ stereotypes/ it is highly 
personal, but is diluted to some extent by 
polyverbal reactions, which, although significant, 
are not quite so obviously peculiar to the 
individual subject as are the numbers of class 
VII ; the corresponding figures are 36% and 
14 7%- 

Thus we find, as we progress from class VI (a), 
the most superficial of all, to class VII the most 
peculiar, the most personal, the most truly 
inner, a steady increase in the numbers of 
toned reactions and a steady decrease in the 
number of neutral reactions. These figures 
are shown in Table XIX. 


TabcE XIX 

Actual number of reactions 
shown as a percentage of 




the probable number 

-Aw. __ 

Class 

Description 

Neutral 

Toned 

VI (a) 

Purely verbal 

131% 

77 % 

IV 

Co-existence 

122% 

77 % 

II (d) 

Object relationship 

109% 

92% 

II {a) 

Simple predicate 

105% 

95 % 

I 

Co-ordination 

89% 

109% 

III 

Causal dependence 

72% 

122% 

11(6) 

Predicates of opinion 

50% 

137% 

VII 

Indirect, personal 

30% 

153% 


If we confine ourselves to the consideration of 

negative tone only we have : 

103 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Table XX 

Actual number of reactions 
shown as a percentage of 
the probable number 


Class 

Neutral 

Negatively toned 

VI (a) 

131% 

58% 

IV 

122 % 

64% 

II (d) 

109% 

80% 

II ( a) 

105% 

91% 

I 

89% 

111 % 

III 

72% 

(100%) 

11 (6) 

50% 

174% 

VII 

30% 

268% 


Class III fails to conform in this case but 
the general agreement with Table XIX is 
excellent. 

I contend that this alone is sufficient justifica¬ 
tion for the system of classification which I have 
adopted and if it be considered with the other 
evidence I have adduced the soundness of this 
system will, I think, be unmistakably apparent. 

Anyone who has done any practical surveying 
will know what is meant by f closing a traverse.’ 
I start, let us say, from point A, I take observa¬ 
tions and calculate the position of point B , 
thence I work to C, from C to D, from D to E 
and finally back again to A. If the position 
of A thus computed coincides with its known 
position from which I started I conclude that 
the intermediate measurements and calculations 
have been correctly made ; it is an extraordin¬ 
arily delicate check, as anyone who has tried it 
will admit. 

A somewhat similar check can be applied to 
the investigations embodied in this chapter 
and the two which preceded it. 

I started by showing that affective tone, as 
detected and measured by certain indicators, 

104 




THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


exerted an influence on the remembering of the 
words to which it was concomitant; I next used 
this fact as a means of differentiation between 
different combinations of these indicators and 
for determining their affective properties ; finally 
I applied the results of this process of differentia¬ 
tion to the study of the relation between the 
various types of associations and the affective 
tone concomitant to them. 

If these methods are valid and if the tendency 
I have found for negatively toned reactions 
to predominate among inner associations and 
neutral reactions among outer is a real tendency, 
we should expect the mean ‘ memory value * 
of learned words belonging to the former class 
to be smaller than that of words belonging to the 
latter. This would constitute a ‘ check back ’ 
on to my starting-point. 

I have accordingly computed the mean 
memory value for inner and outer associations 
(classified according to the system I have been 
advocating) ; the values are 6-5 and 7*5 respec¬ 
tively. 1 

Thus we see that starting from Memory, 

1 If an analogous system of marking be employed which takes 
account, not of a word being well remembered or quickly forgotten, 
but of its being one or the other as opposed to being moderately well 
remembered (equally high marks being given for immediate forgetting 
as for permanent retention), figures of merit for inner as compared 
with outer associations can be obtained which indicate the affective 
‘ importance ’ or ' potency,’ so to speak, of the reactions (as 
regards memory) irrespective of their ‘ sense ’ or ‘ direction.’ The 
figures of merit thus obtained are 91 for inner associations and 9’2 
for outer associations. The difference is negligible, and the inference 
is that the affective forces concomitant to inner associations are, 
in general, uni-directional and predominantly ‘ negative.’ If they 
were ambi-directional the figure of merit of inner associations would 
be substantially higher than that for outer associations. That is to 
say, the ‘ innerness ’ of an association is, on the whole, an indication 
of negative tone. 

105 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


proceeding to Complex-indicators, working from 
these to the Forms of Associations and finally 
back again to Memory, the results are uniformly 
concordant. 

When we remember the many fortuitous 
causes which conspire to make the memory test 
insensitive and the considerable scope for error 
which there is in classifying the forms of asso¬ 
ciations, this ‘ closing of the traverse ’ can, I 
think, fairly be claimed as remarkably satis¬ 
factory evidence of the reliability of the methods 
used and the validity of the conclusions obtained. 

Finally, it is necessary to consider the bearing 
of these conclusions as to the form of association 
on the practical use of the association test. 
I have already said that I do not think it is 
likely to be very great, but it cannot be doubted 
that the more thoroughly the test is understood 
by those who use it and the more perfectly the 
relations between its various features are appre¬ 
ciated, the better the results obtained are 
likely to be. And I believe that it may well 
prove a very valuable weapon for purely re¬ 
search purposes. 

The test is sometimes used as a preliminary 
to psycho-analysis ; the physician applies it in 
order to gain some idea of the general mental 
type of the patient and some guide to his prin¬ 
cipal complexes. He is essentially on the look 
out for pointers which shall tell him where he 
may most profitably begin the detailed explora¬ 
tion of the patient’s mind ; he wishes to shorten 
his labours by selecting the most promising 
point de depart for the analysis. It may be 
doubted whether the method is as yet fully 
appreciated, but some psycho-analysts value it 
highly. 

106 


THE FORM OF THE ASSOCIATION 


The success of the test and the amount of 
information to be gained from it must neces¬ 
sarily depend to a large extent on the experience 
of the physician. It is hardly a matter which 
can be reduced to a rigid formula ; the conclu¬ 
sions drawn must rather result from a gradual 
process of correlating all kinds of indications 
given by the test with knowledge as to their 
import derived from various sources. The ease 
and certainty with which the physician can sum 
up his patient must be strictly limited by the 
extent and accuracy of this knowledge ; it is 
all important that he should know, as precisely 
as possible, which indications are noteworthy 
and which are not. 

So far as the form of the association goes there 
can be no doubt, in my opinion, that the most 
significant characteristic is the degree of idiosyn¬ 
crasy of the reaction word. Stereotypes and 
multiverbal reactions (part of my class VIII) 
and very indirect ‘ personal ’ associations (class 
VII) are the most significant of all; then come 
predicate forms involving an expression of 
personal opinion or judgment of value. Outer 
associations, especially those verbal forms con¬ 
stellated by common phrases of everyday life, 
are quite insignificant, though I think it probable 
that the true ‘ clang ’—as opposed to the 
rhyme—is often a complex-indicator. 

In attempting to ascertain the general 
tendency for stimulus-words to elicit emotion¬ 
ally toned reactions the best guide, so far as the 
form of associations is concerned, is probably 
the percentage of inner associations; the word 
‘ inner' being defined as I have advocated 
above. 


107 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Summary 

(i) Comparison of the verbal forms of association with 

the accompanying complex-indicators shows that 
there are marked differences of affective value 
between the various forms. 

(ii) Simple predicates should not be classed as ‘ inner ’ 

associations. 

(iii) Indirect ‘ personal ’ associations, as here defined, are 

highly significant. So also are predicates giving 
expression of personal opinion, etc. 

(iv) The system of classification here suggested yields 

results which harmonise very well with previous ex¬ 
periments and enables associations to be arranged 
in a graded series of affective importance. 

(v) The ‘ innerness ’ of an association is, in the main, an 

index of negative tone. 


i 


108 


CHAPTER V 


EXPERIMENTS ON THE ASSOCIATION TEST 
AS A CRITERION OF INDIVIDUALITY 

The object of the next series of experiments was 
to ascertain whether, and to what extent, the 
distribution of affective tone evoked in the 
course of a word-association test is uniquely 
characteristic of the subject concerned. For 
reasons which I shall give later I consider this 
question to be of considerable importance. 

In order to investigate the point, I induced 
six subjects to undergo repeated tests : 

Subject PI was tested on 6 occasions. 


) > 

P2 

P P 

8 

p p 

P3 

p p 

8 

pp 

P4 

p P 

6 

pp 

P5 

p P 

10 

pp 

P 6 

pp 

6 


The general procedure was substantially the 
same as that described in Chapter II, but I 
did not take reaction times and relied solely 
on the psycho-galvanic reflex as a measure of 
the affective tone evolved. I did this partly 
because I believe the reflex to be far more 
reliable than reaction time and partly because 
I wished, for external reasons, to shorten, 
as much as possible, both the experiments 
themselves and the subsequent calculations. 

109 





THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

I also made certain changes in the list of 
words used. It is obvious that to use a list 
containing any considerable number of words 
likely to arouse intense affective tone in all 
subjects would tend to obscure the individual 
differences which I was anxious to investi¬ 
gate. The ideal would be to use a list con¬ 
taining only words of no universal interest 
which would, therefore, only evoke affective 
tone by virtue of their associations with experi¬ 
ences peculiar to the individual; but this is 
scarcely practicable. 

As an approximation to this I deleted from 
my original list the twenty words which, in my 
previous experiments, had aroused the most 
intense affective tone in subjects as a whole. 
These, in the order in which they appeared in 
my original list, were : 

Woman, Dance, Proud, Habit, Pray, Money, Despise, 
War, Child, Marry, Fight, Family, Name, Afraid, Love, 
Kiss, State, Happy, Wound, Divorce. 


I replaced these by the following twenty words 
which I judged less likely to arouse intensive 
affective tone in the average subject: 

Window, Pay, Mountain, Justice, Hat, Paint, Wild, 
Month, Brown, Dog, Help, Apple, Waste, Fast, Purpose, 
Knife, House, Coal, Fire, Hotel. 


The list then ran as follows : 


no 


ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


Table XXI 


1. Head 

2. Green 

3. Water 

4. Sing 

5. Dead 

6. Long 

7. Ship 

8. Make 

9. Window 

10. Friend 

11. Cook 

12. Ask 

13. Cold 

14. Stalk 

15. Pay 

16. Village 

17. Pond 

18. Sick 

19. Mountain 

20. Bring 

21. Ink 

22. Angry 

23. Needle 

24. Swim 

25. Go 


26. Blue 

27. Lamp 

28. Carry 

29. Bread 

30. Rich 

31. Tree 

32. Jump 

33. Pity 

34. Yellow 

35. Street 

36. Bury 

37. Salt 

38. Dress 

39. Justice 

40. Hat 

41. Paint 

42. Silly 

43. Book 

44. Wild 

45. Finger 

46. Month 

47. Bird 

48. Walk 

49. Paper 

50. Wicked 


51. Frog 

52. Try 

53. Hunger 

54. White 

55. Brown 
56.Speak 

57. Pencil 

58. Sad 

59. Plum 

60. Dog 

61. Home 

62. Nasty 

63. Glass 

64. Help 

65. Wine 

66. Big 

67. Carrot 

68. Give 

69. Doctor 

70. Travel 

71. Flower 

72. Beat 

73. Box 

74. Old 

75. Apple 


76. Wait 

77. Cow 

78. Waste 

79. Luck 

80. Horse 

81. Table 

82. Work 

83. Brother 

84. Fast 

85. Purpose 

86. Chair 

87. Worry 

88. Knife 

89. Motor 

90. Clean 

91. Bag 

92. Choice 

93. Bed 

94. House 

95. Coal 

96. Shut 

97. Fire 

98. Evil 

99. Hotel 

100. Insult 


Each time that I tested a given subject I 
called out the words of the list in a different 
order. Thus I first gave them in the order 
shown above, next backwards, then in the 
order 1, 3, 5, 7 . . . 99, 2, 4, 6, 8 . . . 100 ; 
for the third test I used the order 100, 98, 
96 ... 2, 99, 97, 95 ... 1 ; and similar 
systematic alterations of order were made for 
each test. 

There were several reasons for doing this. In 
the first place, I wished to eliminate, as far as 
possible, any effects due to perseveration, and 
reversing the order of the words is calculated 
to do this to some extent. Secondly, I feared 
that if I always used the same order the subjects 

hi 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


would soon begin to remember which word was 
coming next, and that this would be apt to 
interfere with the success of the experiment. 
Thirdly, some subjects have a tendency to 
‘ settle down ’ in the course of the experiment 
and to give smaller reactions towards the end 
than at the beginning, while others behave in 
the opposite way. 

By varying the order of the words such 
sources of error can be minimised. 

In order to eliminate the danger of the results 
being unduly influenced by tests the absolute 
magnitude of whose reactions might happen 
to be abnormally large or small, I adopted the 
same ‘ percentage method ’ which I used in 
my experiments on nonsense-syllables. That 
is to say, I expressed each reaction as a per¬ 
centage of the arithmetic mean of the series to 
which it belonged ; each series, therefore, was 
of equal weight in determining the final results, 
no matter what the absolute magnitude of 
its mean reaction might be. 

The tests on each subject were carried out at 
intervals of two or three days. 

In order to ascertain the average consistency 
of individual subjects—the extent, that is to 
say, to which an individual’s reactions on one 
occasion resembled his reactions on another— 
I divided the tests for each subject into two 
equal groups, taking the first three, four or 
five tests, as the case might be, as one group, and 
the last three, four or five as the other group. 
Thus for subject Pi the first group consisted of 
tests i, 2 and 3 and the other of tests 4, 5 and 6, 
while for subject P5 one group consisted of 
tests 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and the other of tests 
6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. , 




ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


In each such group I computed the mean 
percentage reaction for each word in the series. 
For example : 


Tabue XXII 

Subject No. PI. 

Reactions as percentages of their respective means. 


Word : 

Head 

Green 

Water 

Sing 

Dead 

First test 

86 

10 

0 

76 

257 

Second test . 

0 

0 

65 

0 

588 

Third test . 

0 

0 

0 

0 

145 

Mean of 1, 2 and 3 . 

29 

3 

22 

25 

330 

Fourth test . 

0 

0 

0 - 

0 

254 

Fifth test 

55 

0 

0 

0 

276 

Sixth test 

71 

71 

0 

0 

213 

Mean of 4, 5 and 6 . 

42 

24 

0 

0 

248 

Mean of all tests 

35 

14 

11 

12 

289 


I also calculated the mean percentage-reaction 
for all the tests, as shown above. 

In order to ascertain what kind of effect is 
produced by using the means of two such groups 
of tests for each subject, instead of relying 
on a single pair of tests, and thus to gain some 
idea of how many tests it would be desirable to 
use in order to obtain reliable results in future 
work of this nature, I worked out the coefficients 
of correlation between the deflexions given by 
the first test and the second test respectively 
in the case of each subject. The correlations 
were : 


Correlation : 

Table XXIII 

first and second test for PI 

+ •69 

y > 

y y 

„ P2 

+ •39 

y y 

y y 

„ P3 

+ •18 


yy 

„ P4 

+ •44 

99 

y y 

„ P5 

+ •35 

99 

yy 

„ P6 

—01 



Mean . 

+ •36 


113 


H 






THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


If these values are compared with those 
obtained from the correlation of the means 
of the groups it will be seen that the effect of 
taking the mean of several tests as a basis of 
calculation is greatly to increase the correlation 
and to eliminate the discrepancies between 
the performances of the same individual on 
different occasions. 

I next calculated the coefficient of correlation 
between the means of the two groups (Mi and 
M2) for each subject and obtained the following 
correlation : 


Table XXIV 


Correlation: first group (Ml) with second group (M2) for PI -f -98 


(M2) „ P2 +-72 
(M2) „ P3 + -70 
(M2) „ P4 +-60 
(M2) „ P5 + -G8 
(M2) „ PG +-42 


(Ml) 

(Ml) 

(Ml) 

(Ml) 

(Ml) 


The mean of these coefficients of correlations 
is+-68. If they be weighted in proportion to 
the number of observations on which each is 
based the weighted mean is +-685. 

This value is important; it is the mathe¬ 
matical expression of the extent to which an 
average subject agrees with himself, so to speak, 
over a period of the duration here involved ( i.e . 
about three to four weeks). 

The next step was to ascertain the extent to 
which subjects agree with each other. To 
ascertain this I worked out the coefficient of 
correlation between the mean percentage- 
reactions of all tests for each subject with 
every other subject. The resulting figures 
were : 


114 




ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


Table XXV 

Mean of PI (all tests) with mean of P2 (all tests) +*19 



PI 


9 9 

P3 

—02 


PI 


9 9 

P4 

+ •12 


PI 


> ) 

P5 

—01 


PI 


) 9 

P6 

+ •02 


P2 


9 9 

P3 

+ •15 


P2 


9 9 

P4 

+ •19 


P2 


9 9 

P5 

+ •18 


P2 


9 9 

PO 

+ •01 


P3 


9 9 

P4 

+ •46 


P3 


9 9 

P5 

+ •14 


P3 


9 9 

P6 

—24 


P4 


9 9 

P5 

+ •23 


P4 


9 9 

P6 

—04 

9 9 

P5 


9 9 

P6 - , 

—13 


The mean of these values is + -o8. If they be 
weighted in proportion to the product of the 
number of observations on which each series 
correlated is based the weighted mean is +*09. 

It will be noticed that with one exception 
(subject P3 with P4) 1 the correlation between any 
two subjects is very markedly lower than that 
between the two groups of any single individual 
subject. This is what we should expect on 
general grounds ; for, if we eliminate words of 
universal appeal from the list, the affective state 
evoked by any word in a given subject must be 
a product of that subject's personal experience : 
and the experience of every individual is unique. 

In accordance with the ordinary laws of 
probability we should expect to find certain 
proportions of abnormally high and low values 
in each class of correlation (i.e. ‘ individuals 
with themselves ' and ‘ individuals with each 
other’) but the majority of values in each 
should approximate to the mean. We thus 

1 This is almost wholly due to two words, ‘ sad ’ and ‘ waste,’ 
which greatly excited both subjects : without these the figure 
would be about + 09 . 

115 








THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


find the very high value of +-98 for subject 
Pi and the very low value of +-42 for subject 
P6, in the first class ; and the very high value 
of +-46 for subject P3 and P4. 

If we had at our disposal a sufficiently large 
number of values to give us the frequency 
distributions of values in the two classes we 
should doubtless obtain two overlapping curves 
of which one would have its maximum at 
approximately +-7, the other at about + *i. The 
precise position of the maximum would depend, 
inter alia , upon the number of words of universal 
appeal which the list contained. If there were 
none, the maximum of the curve corresponding 
to the agreement between different individuals 
would be exactly at o and it would, presumably, 
be symmetrical, while that of the other curve 
would be at about+• 6. Any increase in the 
number of universally exciting words would 
shift the maxima towards the right and, incident¬ 
ally, bring them closer together ; for if the list 
were composed exclusively of ‘ universal' words 
the element of individuality would, ex hypothesi , 
be eliminated and the curves would coincide 
with a maximum at+i-o, becoming vertical 
straight lines in the process. 

From such curves it would be possible to 
calculate the precise chance that a given co¬ 
efficient of correlation between two series of 
reactions of unknown origin arose from correlat¬ 
ing the reactions of the same individual or of 
two different individuals. 

For practical purposes, however, such refine¬ 
ments are unnecessary; we may say with 
considerable assurance that in general the corre¬ 
lation of individuals with themselves is about 
+ •60 to +*70, while the correlation between 

116 


ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


different individuals is not likely to be greater 
than -f *2. The relevance of this conclusion to 
possible future investigations will be dealt with 
later. 

It is necessary to give, at this stage, a few 
observations as to the experimental conditions 
under which this work was done and the prob¬ 
able reliability of the results obtained. I 
experienced a good deal of difficulty from the 
very cold weather which prevailed during part 
of the work and which was aggravated by the 
coal strike. I found that when subjects were 
cold and their skins dry and contracted they 
generally gave unsatisfactory reactions. Some¬ 
times they refused to react at all and I was 
obliged to discontinue and to postpone several 
tests on this account. When the} 7 did react 
they generally gave very small deflexions with a 
distinct tendency towards an ‘ all-or-none ' type 
of reaction. That is to say, they would give 
long runs of very small deflexions, or of none 
at all, with what seemed to be disproportion¬ 
ately large deflexions for such few words as 
produced more than this minimal response. 
The effect of this is somewhat to increase the 
tendency of subjects to correlate highly with 
themselves and only slightly with each other, 
but I consider that this is at least discounted 
by the fact that such relatively unsatisfactory 
series of reactions appeared to be much more 
erratic than the more satisfactory series. Several 
of the tests in this experiment were as good as 
any I have observed and I received the strong 
impression that these ‘ conformed to type/ 
for any subject, much more closely than did 
the less good tests. That is to say, I anticipated 
large reactions on words which had previously 

n 7 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


excited the subject with far greater confidence 
when the test was one of first-class reliability 
than I did when it was not. 

My opinion is that, in so far as the experi¬ 
mental conditions were adverse (and of course 
I never continued a test unless it was reasonably 
satisfactory), the effects very approximately 
cancelled each other, tending on the one hand to 
accentuate and on the other to diminish both 
the agreement of individuals with themselves 
and their lack of agreement with each other. 
This opinion is, of course, purely subjective, 
but it is based on a fairly extensive experience 
of using the galvanometer in conjunction with 
word-association tests and I have no doubt as 
to the reliability of the general results obtained. 

Provided the tests are reasonably numerous 
and spread over a period of not more than a 
month, and that a suitable list of words is 
used, individuals will, in general, show a correla¬ 
tion with themselves of not less than +-6 and, 
with each other, of not more than +-2. (There 
will, of course, on the theory of probability, 
always be an occasional exception, as already 
pointed out.) 

I may now pass to what I conceive to be the 
potential value of this method. I consider that 
it is likely to prove useful in the investigation 
of those phenomena of ‘ dissociation ’ and 
‘ multiple personality/ in which whole tracts of 
experience, so to speak, appear to become 
detached from, and to function independently 
of, the main mass of experience which deter¬ 
mines the ‘ normal ’ personality. There are, 
roughly speaking, two alternative views as to 
the kind of process which results in these condi¬ 
tions. On the one hand, they are regarded as no 

118 


ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


more than special cases of the general process of 
‘ repression,’ differing only from other instances 
of the same process in the extent and sharp 
delimitation of the mass of experiences repressed 
and in the intensity of the repression. On the 
other hand, it is suggested that some special 
process comes into play—a process distinct 
sui generis from anything operative in the 
normal mind—and that, as a result of this, 
the experiences concerned are actually, in some 
fashion, split off from the main mass and 
segregated, so to speak, into a water-tight 
compartment of their own. According to this 
view they are inactive, incapable of exerting 
any influence on mental-activity in the normal 
state, wholly autonomous and separated from 
the general mass of experience by an impassable 
barrier. 

I, personally, incline very strongly to the 
former view, with which I suspect that most 
psychologists would agree ; but support of the 
other view, or of something closely resembling it, 
is not lacking from authoritative quarters. 

This is the sort of point which might, in my 
opinion, be elucidated by the method which I 
have here described and in some measure tested. 
If it be conceded as a result of these experiments 
that it is possible to obtain a characteristic 
chart, so to speak, or at least to achieve a 
representative sampling, of a subject’s mind 
by such means, it should be possible, in the 
light of this knowledge, to investigate the 
problem experimentally. 

Consider a well-marked case of double person¬ 
ality in which the subject shows two alternative 
states, A and B, of which we will suppose that 
A is the normal, or relatively normal, state. If 

119 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


we test the subject in the A state on ten occa¬ 
sions, say, we shall obtain, if we use a reasonably 
large list of words, a set of mean reactions 
characteristic of the mental content deter¬ 
mining that state. A similar testing of the B 
state will give us a set of reactions characteristic 
of the mental content of that state. If the 
correlation of these two sets of mean reactions 
proves to be of the same order as the correlation 
of an individual with himself— i.e. of the order 
of + •65—we may conclude that the mental 
contents corresponding to and respectively deter¬ 
mining the two states are essentially the same. 
But if the correlation is of the same order as 
that given by two different individuals— i.e. 
of the order of + -i or +*2—we may conclude 
that the determining mental contents are differ¬ 
ent. To adopt the familiar, but valuable, 
analogy of the ‘ iceberg/ we should conclude in 
the first case that it is the same iceberg, but with 
a different area above the water and, in the 
second, that the iceberg has really been split 
into two parts. 

As I have said, I anticipate that the former 
view would prove correct and this is to some 
extent supported by the work of Prince and 
Peterson in the ‘ Sally Beauchamp ’ case de¬ 
scribed in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology 
for 1908. 

These experimenters found that words which 
were emotionally significant to the patient in 
one state evoked a large psycho-galvanic reflex 
when presented to her in another, in spite of 
the fact that when in the latter state she was 
amnesic to the experiences which, in her first 
state, invested the words with their significance. 
The experiments were, however, few in number 

120 






ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


and of a relatively rough-and-ready nature. 
That is to say no attempt was made to show the 
agreement between the two states quantitatively 
and, even if this had been done, there was in 
existence no standard of comparison by which 
the extent of the agreement could be assessed. 

Unfortunately, such clear-cut cases as this are 
rare, unless we include, as I think we should, 
those trance conditions commonly known as 
‘ mediumistic/ These seem to me to deserve 
more attention from abnormal psychologists 
than they have yet received. To investigate 
such cases by the method described above would 
be very interesting and would almost certainly 
exhibit the trance ‘ controls *—to use the tech¬ 
nical term—as no more than secondary personali¬ 
ties of the ‘ mediums ’ concerned. 

It would also be exceedingly interesting to 
apply the method to hypnotic subjects. 
Hypnosis is now believed by many authorities 
to depend essentially on an affective attitude 
of mind on the part of the subject towards the 
physician and it is at least possible that this 
might show itself in the reactions given by 
subjects who have been frequently hypnotised 
when compared with those who have not. 

It is also possible that the reactions of a 
subject under hypnosis would differ appreci¬ 
ably from those of the same subject in his normal 
state, and if this were so we might obtain 
interesting light on the mental condition of a 
hypnotised subject. 

It would also be interesting to ascertain 
whether it would be possible to abolish or to 
enhance the affective tone normally evoked by a 
stimulus-word by suggesting to the hypnotised 
subject that he should feel no emotion, or a 

T2I 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


great deal—as the case might be—when the 
word in question is called out. 

Another point worth investigating would be 
the question of whether one could bring about 
any considerable redistribution of affective tone 
among the words of the list by suggesting to 
the subject that he is some person other than 
himself. It is well known that a hypnotised 
subject in a suitable condition will impersonate 
a suggested character with a fidelity and his¬ 
trionic skill which are often remarkable. It 
would be interesting to ascertain whether such 
a suggested impersonation were accompanied by 
any radical redistribution of affective tone of 
anything like the same order as would neces¬ 
sarily be observed if the real individual imper¬ 
sonated were substituted for the hypnotised 
subject. Personally I do not anticipate that 
any such wholesale redistribution would take 
place, but some appreciable change is at least 
possible and, in any event, the question of the 
extent to which ‘ affect ’ can be displaced and 
redistributed by suggestion is a very interesting 
one, the answer to which would considerably 
enlarge our understanding of mental mechanisms 
and processes. 

Summary 

(i) Individuals show marked and characteristic differ¬ 

ences in the reactions they give to a suitably 
selected list of words. 

(ii) Provided the mean values of several tests are taken 

and that these tests do not extend over too long a 
period individuals correlate with themselves much 
more highly than they do with each other. 

(iii) The most probable values of the correlations of 

individuals with themselves and with each other 
may be taken as approximately +*65 and +*15 
respectively, for a list of words of the kind here 

122 



ASSOCIATION TESTS AND INDIVIDUALITY 


used. More extensive investigations could, if 
necessary, enable us to fix these values precisely, 
to determine the corresponding frequency distri¬ 
butions and thus to render future problems dealt 
with on these lines amenable to strict mathe¬ 
matical treatment. 

(iv) These facts should enable us to determine whether 
certain tracts of experience ever become com¬ 
pletely split off from the principal mass, and 
whether mental conditions which appear at first 
sight to differ toto ccelo from each other are in 
reality determined by identically the same aggre¬ 
gate of experiences of which different aspects are 
thus expressed, or whether they proceed from 
aggregates so discrete and so independent of one 
another as to warrant our describing the resultant 
states as genuinely different personalities. They 
may also throw considerable light on various 
questions concerning the permanence and liability 
to disturbance of the affective tone concomitant 
to the experiences of an individual mind. 


J23 


CHAPTER VI 


EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF 

ALCOHOL 

The experiments described below were under¬ 
taken as a sequel to those dealt with in the 
preceding chapters, with the object of ascer¬ 
taining how the affective tone of reactions 
and the complex-indicators accompanying them 
were modified by the action of alcohol. It was 
hoped that in this way some new light might 
be thrown on the psychological effects of the 
drug. 

Although we often regard the psychological 
effects of alcohol as so familiar as to demand 
no special study or explanation, a few moments' 
thought will suffice to show that they are not 
nearly so straightforward as one might at first 
suppose. 

On the one hand, it is a matter of common 
knowledge that under the influence of alcohol 
there is a tendency for people to react in an 
exaggerated fashion to inadequate stimuli ; the}^ 
laugh hilariously, quarrel violently, weep copi¬ 
ously, all on the slenderest grounds. This 
suggests that they feel more acutely. 

On the other hand, it is well-known that a 
man who is much worried, or for any reason 
unhappy, will often ‘ take to drink ' in order to 
alleviate his distress. This suggests that the 
effect of alcohol is to reduce intensity of feeling. 

124 


EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 


These few words are sufficient to show that 
the effects of alcohol are far from obvious, 
quite apart from the academic desirability of 
making an exact study of the psychological 
effects of all drugs. 

External circumstances prevented the tests 
being performed on the same subjects as were 
examined in the course of the previous experi¬ 
ments. But, in any event, it would probably 
have been unwise to use the same subjects a 
second time, for their memories of the earlier 
tests might easily have affected their reactions 
and thus have rendered a true comparison 
impossible. Actually the subjects examined 
under alcohol were all of the same social and 
intellectual grades and of approximately the 
same ages as those previously considered, so 
it may be assumed that, without alcohol, they 
would have given, on the average, substantially 
identical results. 

The experiments with alcohol were divided 
into two parts. The first series, performed on 
ten subjects, were undertaken primarily in 
order to ascertain whether the absolute magni¬ 
tude of the psycho-galvanic reflex was increased 
or decreased by the administration of alcohol. 
It was not possible to determine this by com¬ 
parison with the results of the previous 
experiments because the mean absolute magni¬ 
tude of the reflex varies greatly among 
individuals, and from day to day in the same 
individual. It also varies with the size of 
the electrodes used, the strength of the salt- 
solution, the sensitivity of the electrical system , 1 
etc. 


1 The apparatus used and procedure followed were the same as 
described in Chapter II. 

125 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


In order to ascertain this point the following 
procedure was adopted : the original standard 
list of ioo words was divided into two lists 
of 50 words each. Of these 25 in each list 
were taken from the first half of the original 
list and 25 from the second half. Thus list 
A consisted of the words : 


Green, Sing, Ship, Make, Friend, Cold, Stalk, Village, 
Bring, Ink, Go, Carry, Bread, Tree, Yellow, Street, 
Bury, Salt, Habit, Pray, Silly, Despise, Finger, Paper, 
Wicked, Frog, Try, Hunger, Speak, Pencil, Marry, Nasty, 
Glass, Fight, Wine, Big, Doctor, Travel, Flower, Family, 
Name, Luck, Horse, Table, Afraid, Kiss, Choice, Bag, 
Happy, Wound, 

of which the first 25 were taken from the first 
half of the original list. 

Similarly, list B consisted of the words : 

Head, Water, Dead, Long, Woman, Cook, Ask, Dance, 
Pond, Sick, Proud, Angry, Needle, Swim, Blue, Lamp, 
Rich, Jump, Pity, Dress, Money, Book, War, Bird, Walk, 
White, Child, Sad, Plum, Home, Carrot, Give, Beat, Box, 
Old, Wait, Cow, Work, Brother, Love, Chair, Worry, 
Motor, Clean, Bed, State, Sheet, Evil, Divorce, Insult, 


of which the first 25 were again taken from the 
first half of the original list. 

The words in each of the two lists A and B 
were, moreover, so selected as to make the 
mean galvanometer deflexions for the two 
lists, obtained for the normal subjects pre¬ 
viously examined, approximately equal. The 
mean for all the words in list A was 27-5 scale 
divisions and for list B 26-3. 

The object in thus arranging the lists was to 
ensure that they should be as truly comparable 
as possible as regards galvanometer deflexions, 

126 


EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 


apart from any influence which might be exerted 
by the administration of alcohol. 

Each of the ten subjects selected for the first 
part of the experiment was tested, first in his 
normal state with one list and then, after the 
administration of alcohol, with the other list. 
The psycho-galvanic reflex and the reaction 
time were measured for each word and the 
‘ reproduction test ’ applied after each list. 
The dose of alcohol consisted of approximately 
a medium-sized wineglass of neat gin or whisky 1 
and a period of from 10-20 minutes was allowed 
in each case in order to give the alcohol time to 
take effect. The precise size of the dose was 
varied slightly with individuals, less being 
given to abstainers than to those who were not. 
The object was rather to produce a uniform 
effect than to give a uniform dose and the 
subject was asked in each case whether he 
could distinctly feel the effects. If he could not 
do so, more alcohol was administered until he 
could. 

In testing these subjects the order of the 
lists was reversed with alternate subjects so 
as to eliminate the small intrinsic differences 
between the lists. Thus, subject No. 1 was 
tested with list A before the alcohol and list B 
after; No. 2 with list B before and list A 
after, etc. 

It is safe to assume, I think, that if this 
procedure had been followed in every detail, 
with the exception of the alcohol, the mean 
deflexion of the list first used would, for the 
average of all subjects, be substantially identical 
with that of the list used second. 


1 Approximately equal to two ' large whiskies. 

127 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


The actual results were : 

TabeE XXVI 


Subject 

Before alcohol 

After alcohol 

No. Mean defln. 

Mean RT 

Mean defln. 

Mean RT 

1 

6*66 

8-12 

5-64 

9-96 

2 

4-04 

8-92 

6-56 

8-72 

3 

6*60 

10-18 

5-14 

9-88 

4 

16-14 

13-60 

14-54 

13-00 

5 

3-41 

27-50 

1-26 

16-70 

6 

11-28 

8-36 

•46 

9-80 

7 

25-56 

9-56 

24-74 

10-10 

8 

49-10 

12-82 

30-82 

15-82 

9 

34-80 

10-96 

28-00 

11-92 

10 

33-32 

10-30 

34-50 

9-12 

Mean of means 

19-09 

12-32 

15-17 

11-50 


It is clear that the effect of alcohol is to 
reduce the mean galvanometer deflexion. The 
ratio for the lists observed after alcohol to those 
observed before it is 15-17 : 19-09 =-795. 

This becomes still more striking if we apply, 
as we should, a correction for the variation in 
the mean resistance of each subject during the 
experiment. 1 The figures then become : 


TabeE XXVII 


Subject No. 

Mean defln. 
before alcohol 

Mean defln. 
after alcohol 

1 

8-66 

6-20 

2 

5-84 

4-75 

3 

2-38 

1-72 

4 

7-10 

5-23 

5 

1-33 

•44 

6 

10-78 

•37 

7 

14-93 

9-14 

8 

12-27 

6-47 

9 

8-01 

4-76 

10 

49-98 

41-40 

Mean of means 

. 12-13 

8-05 


1 


See page 35. 

128 








EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 

The ratio in this case is 8-05 : 12-13 or -665 : 1. 
(The mean of the individual ratios is -592.) It 
will be noticed that in every case the corrected 
mean deflexion for the after-alcohol list is 
considerably less than that for the before¬ 
alcohol list. 

It may, therefore, be regarded as established 
that the effect of alcohol is markedly to reduce 
the psycho-galvanic reflex as elicited by the 
word-association test. 

The consideration of the effects observed 
with these subjects as regards force of associa¬ 
tion, reaction time and the reproduction test 
may be postponed until we deal with the results 
obtained in the course of the remainder of the 
experiments. 

When this result concerning the absolute 
magnitude of the psycho-galvanic reflex had 
been obtained, I no longer felt it necessary 
to employ the comparative method described 
above with each individual subject. Accord¬ 
ingly, I resorted to the use of my complete 
original list, with which I tested each of a further 
twenty subjects who were given a dose of alcohol 
(of the size and nature described above) before 
starting the test. 

The general results are summarised in the 
following table : 


129 


1 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Table XXVIII 


Subject 

No. 

Mean 

RT 

Mean 

GD 

11 

9*81 

25-26 

12 

11*61 

14*34 

13 

17-21 

30-40 

14 

10-60 

13-55 

15 

10-28 

12-93 

16 

13-38 

•95 

17 

9-75 

11-17 

18 

8-72 

17-48 

19 

18-55 

13-63 

20 

10-12 

9-83 

21 

9-32 

1-80 

22 

10-78 

4-92 

23 

9-42 

18-02 

24 

9-69 

8-50 

25 

10-95 

9-40 

26 

8-73 

32-45 

27 

9-59 

21-09 

28 

14-28 

5-53 

29 

10-01 

13-09 

30 

9-70 

19-83 

Means . 

11-12 


Corresponding A 
means for | 

normal subjects J 

. 11-22 

• • 


Mean GD Failures m 
(corrected) reproduction % 


58-09 

17 

30*11 

33 

63-84 

52 

25-27 

22 

35-56 

28 

6-65 

41 

44-68 

13 

58-56 

25 

53-16 

49 

20-64 

19 

18-00 

24 

68-88 

24 

23-97 

25 

16-15 

27 

21-62 

15 

58-41 

27 

51-67 

30 

12-17 

38 

45-81 

31 

56-52 

19 

33-49 

27-95 

• • 

26-90 


When it is remembered that the galvanometer 
deflexions of these subjects are not directly 
comparable with those of normal subjects (for 
the reasons already given) and that in the case 
of the latter the mean reaction time and mean 
percentage of failures in reproduction are 11*22 
and 26*90 respectively, it is clear that these 
figures are not very helpful as they stand. 
The data require much more elaborate analysis 
before useful results can be obtained from them. 1 
Such very slight differences as there were, 
however (1% decrease in reaction time and 4% 
in mean number of failures in reproduction), 

1 In the course of this detailed analysis I shall pay considerably 
more attention to galvanometer deflexions than to reaction times, 
for, as I have shown above, the former is a far more delicate measure 
of affective tone. 


130 





EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 


suggest a diminution rather than an increase 
in emotional activity. 

The first point with which I dealt was that 
of the variability of the reactions given by 
‘ alcoholic ’ as compared with normal subjects. 
It has always seemed to me that this quality 
—measured by the ‘ mean variation ' or more 
reliably by the ‘ coefficient of variation ’ is 
calculated to give a reasonably good measure 
of the ‘ emotivity' of a subject. The term 
‘ emotivity ' is admittedly difficult to define with 
precision although most of us probably attach 
some sort of meaning to the word. But I 
think it is clear that a subject who reacts in 
very different degrees to stimuli of differing 
intensities may fairly be said to possess a higher 
‘ emotivity ’ than one who maintains a uniform 
dead level of response. 1 The affective mechan¬ 
isms of the latter would appear to be imper¬ 
fectly developed, his emotional life poor in 
quality, his capacity for feeling, excitement and 
interest deficient ; while the former would be 
more responsive, capable of a richer emotional 
experience and altogether less inert. 

In order, therefore, to compare alcoholic 
with normal subjects in this respect I computed 
the mean variation and the coefficient of varia¬ 
tion 2 for the mean reactions elicited by the words 
of the list for the two classes in question. The 
results were : 


1 This applies even if the absolute mean magnitude of the re¬ 
actions is large, for this may be due to low initial skin resistance or 
to other causes. Cf. p. 35. 


2 g 

2 Mean variation =-^ 

n x M 

from the mean (M) and n 

Variation is J 2 ^ . 

kxM 


where 8 is the difference of any variates 
is the number of variates: Coefficient of 


L3i 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Table XXIX 

Mean variation : Normal subjects .... 0-25 

,, ,, Alcoholic ,, .... 0*22 

Coefficient of variation : Normal ,, .... 0*345 

,, ,, Alcoholic ,, .... 0*28 

In each case the variability of alcoholic sub¬ 
jects is seen to be appreciably less than that of 
normal subjects and it is worth noting that the 
coefficient of variation (which is the more 
reliable measure) shows the difference more 
strongly than does the mean variation. 

As a check on this I calculated the coefficients 
of variation of a number of alcoholic and normal 
subjects individually. For this purpose I 
selected my six ‘ best ’ normal subjects—that 
is to say those six subjects who had most 
impressed me by the smoothness, reliability 
and regularity of their reactions. This impres¬ 
sion of reliability was to a great extent in¬ 
versely proportional to the erraticness of the 
subjects examined and the six subjects selected 
are, therefore, likely to have coefficients of 
variation considerably below the average for 
normal persons. 

The values obtained were : 


TABEE XXX 


Subject No. 
1 
2 

26 

28 

33 

48 


Coefficient of Variation 
•503 
•911 
•579 
1-440 
•544 
1-260 


Mean . *873 

From my alcoholic subjects I took the first 

132 



EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 

six of those who did the whole test under the 
influence of alcohol. 

The results were : 


Tabee XXXI 


Subject No. Coefficient of Variation 


11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 


•438 

•597 

•536 

•360 

•324 

•804 


Mean . *510 


No. 16 is fairly obviously a ‘ freak/ The 
values for the next three are *452, *729, -793. 
The mean for the first nine (including No. 16) 
is -56 ; if No. 16 is excluded the value for the 
first six (viz. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 17) is -45. 

It is clear, therefore, that the coefficient of 
variation is saliently less for alcoholic than for 
normal persons. 

That is to say, the effect of alcohol is to 
diminish emotivity on the whole . 1 

The next step was to classify the reactions 
obtained from the alcoholic subjects according 
to their ‘ indicator classes ’ (see Chapter III). 

The results were : 


Class 

O 

T 

G 

R 

TG 

TR 

GR 

TGR 

Total 

No. of 
reactions 

706 

294 

408 

153 

368 

139 

116 

238 

2422 

% of total 

29-1 

12-1 

16-8 

6-3 

15*3 

5-8 

4*8 

9-8 

100 


1 1 italicise these words because, as will be seen later, there appears 
to be a kind of redistribution of emotional activity, which results 
in certain strongly affective reactions being more numerous in spite 
of the general emotivity being lowered. 

133 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 

The corresponding figures for normal subjects 
are : 


Class 

O 

T 

G 

R 

TG 

TR 

GR 

TGR 

Total 

No. of 
reactions 

480 

255 

307 

129 

239 

119 

105 

107 

1741 

% of total 

27*6 

14*7 

17*6 

7*4 

13*7 

6*8 

6*0 

6*2 

100 


falcoholic subjects] 

1 he ratios \ —- * - uk -— r 

(normal subjects] 

centages are : 


of the per- 


Class O T G R TG TR GR TGR 

Ratio 1-06 -82 -95 -85 1-12 *85 -80 1*58 


These figures are exceedingly curious. The 
most noticeable thing is the marked increase in 
the class TGR—the class which is accompanied 
by the most intense degree of negative tone. 
Next comes TG, the class accompanied by the 
most intense degree of positive tone. Third in 
order is class O composed of indifferent words. 
These three gain, under alcohol, at the expense 
of the classes corresponding to reactions accom¬ 
panied by only a moderate degree of tone. 
Thus if, as seems reasonably legitimate, we 
classify reactions as (i) ‘ highly toned * (con¬ 
sisting of classes TG and TGR) ; (ii) ‘ moderately 
toned ’ (classes T, G, R, TR and GR) ; and (iii) 

‘ untoned ’ (class O), we have : 

Ratios of percentages of reactions among 
alcoholic as compared with normal subjects : 

(i) Highly toned reactions .... 1*26 

(ii) Moderntety toned reactions . . . *87 

(iii) Untoned reactions .... 1*05 

Or if, as may be thought more correct in 
the light of the observations on pp. 66-68, we 

i34 




EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 

include class T among the ‘ untoned ’ reactions, 
we have: 

(i) Highly toned reactions . . . .1*26 

(ii) Moderately toned reactions . . . *89 

(iii) Untoned reactions .... -98 


In either case it is clear that highly toned 
reactions have considerably gained at the expense 
of the moderately toned, while in the first case 
the neutral or untoned reactions have also 
slightly increased and in the second slightly 
diminished. 

The status of class ‘ T ’ as a true ‘ neutral ’ or 
untoned class has always been rather doubtful 
(see pp. 65-68) and I am not sure whether, in 
this context, the first or the second of the two 
modes of classification used above is the more 
correct. The point is, however, of minimal 
importance and we may content ourselves with 
saying that the proportion of neutral reactions 
is substantially unchanged. 

The really important point is the gain in 
highly toned reactions and the loss in moderately 
toned, and this is unmistakable in each case. 

In other words, it is clear that under the 
influence of alcohol reactions tend towards an 
‘ all-or-none ’ character. 

In order to test still further the conclusions 
already reached I next proceeded to classify 
the reactions obtained according to the verbal 
form of the association. I therefore computed 
the numbers of associations falling in the various 
classes described in Chapter IV. 

The results are shown in Table XXXII, 
which also shows the corresponding figure for 
normal subjects : 


i35 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Table XXXII 


m 

c 

r 

Alcoholic subjects 


The corresponding 
figures for normal 
subjects are : 

Ratio of 
the % are: 

0 

Class 

No. 

°/ 

/o 

No. 

Zo 



I 

437 

17-9 

287 

17-4 

1-04 

0 

0 <1 

II ( b) 

52 

2-1 

75 

4*5 

•47 

c n 
in 

II (e) 

84 

3-3 

50 

3-0 

1-17 

o3 

III 

80 

3-5 

57 

3*4 

•97 

c 

VII 

109 

4-5 

86 

5-2 

•86 

t—1 

^ Total 

762 

31-3 

555 

33-5 

•93 


, 11(a) 

319 

13-0 

229 

13-8 

•94 


II (c) 

48 

2-0 

39 

2-4 

•83 

in 

11(d) 

199 

8-2 

141 

8-5 

•97 

0 

IV 

310 

12-6 

264 

14-8 

•85 


V 

244 

10-0 

104 

6-3 

1-57 

• 

O 

VI (a) 

481 

19-6 

285 

17*2 

1-14 

in 

in 

VI {b) 

48 

2-0 

37 

2-2 

•91 

ctf 

u 

VI (c) 

25 

1-3 

22 

1*3 

1-00 

4-> 

3 

Total 

1674 

68-7 

1121 

66-5 

1-03 


Grand 
v total 

2436 

100 

1676 

100 



I have no doubt that one could draw various 
interesting conclusions from a detailed con¬ 
sideration of the gains and losses of these 
various classes under the influence of alcohol. 
But I do not think that such conclusions would 
be sufficiently reliable to justify the undertaking. 
The verbal form of the association is much more 
under voluntary and conscious control than is 
the reaction time, while the galvanometer 
deflexion is, of course, not under control at 
all. Consequently, although the verbal form 
is a useful guide where broad differences are in 
question, I would not care to rely upon it in 
detail when we are concerned only with delicate 
differential effects, such as are produced in 
normal persons by the administration of a 
relatively small dose of alcohol. 

136 













EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 

For our present purpose, therefore, it is 
sufficient to note that the proportion of ' inner ' 
associations is diminished, while that of ‘ outer' 
associations is increased. 

In order to ascertain whether this difference 
is likely to be significant, I have applied the 
method described in Appendix III to the per¬ 
centages of inner associations given by normal 


(33'5%) and alcoholic (31-3% 

) subjects 

respec- 

tively. The figures are : 


Normal 

Alcoholic 


subjects 

subjects 

Root mean square of deviation of 
percentages of inner associa- 

tions from mean percentage 

6*85 

6*29 

Number of subjects . 

18 

20 

Probable error 

±1-09 

±•95 

Value of ‘ p ’ . 

1-03 



Chance of the observed difference 


being accidental ... *152 

That is to say, the chances are about 5-6 to 1 
in favour of this difference being a bona fide 
effect due to the influence of alcohol. 

This piece of evidence is of some slight import¬ 
ance because it reduces the chance that the 
observed decrease in the psycho-galvanic reflex 1 
is due to direct physiological causes and makes 
it almost certain that it is, partially at least, a 
genuinely psychological phenomenon. 

The evidence then consists of the following 
items : 

(i) The absolute mean magnitude of the psycho-galvanic 

reflex is diminished. 

(ii) The variability of the reflex is also diminished. 

(iii) The proportion of inner associations is smaller. 

(iv) The proportion of highly toned reactions is increased 

at the expense of the moderately toned. 

1 Page 35. 

13 7 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


(v) Possibly the proportion of neutral reactions is 
slightly increased— i.e. the threshold of response 
is slightly raised—but this is doubtful. 

This being so, we may describe the effects of 
alcohol as two in number : 

(i) There is a general lowering of emotivity. 

(ii) The type of reaction tends to regress towards a more 
‘ all-or-none ’ or protopathic type. 

This seems to me to be extremely interesting. 
It has often been suggested—on general grounds 
—that a person under the influence of alcohol 
approximates to a more primitive type, as indeed 
is often obvious from his behaviour. But here 
we have concrete experimental evidence, based 
solely on measurement, that this is actually 
the case. This appears to me to harmonise 
with the point of view (developed, for example, 
by Dr Rivers in his Instinct and the Unconscious ), 
which stresses the gradual transition from 
protopathic to epicritic modes of reaction, on 
the psychological in addition to the physiological 
levels, as organisms rise in the evolutionary 
scale. 

In the light of this view we can reconcile the 
paradox outlined on page 124, by saying that 
under the influence of alcohol a person is, on 
the whole, slightly more inert, in the sense that 
many stimuli produce a smaller effect in him 
than in the normal person ; but that if the 
stimuli once surpass a certain value the result in 
behaviour tends to become extreme. This 
accords well both with my experimental results 
and the observed behaviour of partially intoxi¬ 
cated individuals. 

It is clear from the foregoing that the technique 
developed in these pages is competent to throw 

138 




EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL 


considerable light on the psychological effects of 
drugs. Further experiments with larger doses 
of alcohol would be valuable, but still more 
so would be investigations of other drugs, such 
as opium, cocaine, heroin, strychnine, amyl 
nitrite, Indian hemp or bhang. In particular, 
it would be interesting to ascertain what drugs, 
if any, produce an opposite effect to that of 
alcohol and lead to a less protopathic mode of 
reaction, of a t}fpe, that is to say, corresponding 
to a supernormal instead of a subnormal level 
of evolution. Moreover, it would be of the 
utmost interest and importance to attempt 
to correlate these psychological effects with the 
known physiological effects of the drugs. In 
this way we could fairly hope greatly to increase 
our knowledge of the physical correlates of 
mental processes. 


Summary 

(i) The effect of alcohol is to reduce the absolute magni¬ 

tude of the psycho-galvanic reflex. This is 
probably partly due to direct physiological causes, 
but is also partially of psychological origin. 

(ii) The variability of the reflex is reduced. 

(iii) The proportion of inner associations is smaller. 

(iv) The proportion of highly toned reactions is increased 

at the expense of the moderately toned : the pro¬ 
portion of untoned remains substantially unchanged, 

(v) Thus it is shown experimentally that, in addition 
to a slight all-round raising of the threshold of 
emotional response and a tendency to mistrust, 
the effect of alcohol is to cause a regression to a 
more primitive, all-or-none or protopathic type of 
reaction. 


139 


CHAPTER VII 

THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 

With the last chapter I concluded my account 
of my experimental work and I will now return 
to the consideration of some theoretical aspects 
of affective tone which I touched on in my 
first chapter. 

My principal object is to explain more fully, 
and to justify as far as possible, the use of the 
terms * positive ’ and ‘ negative ' affective tone, 
which I have used so freely in this book. I 
believe that these concepts are likely to prove 
of value in the development of psychological 
theory and I am very anxious that there should 
be no doubt whatever as to their intended scope 
and meaning. 

It is now generally recognised that every 
mental state possesses some kind of emotional 
quality, and it is a common and convenient 
practice to speak of it in this respect as having 
‘ affective tone.' 

The number of varieties of tone which we 
distinguish is simply a matter of convenience 
and there is no fundamental objection to our 
using different systems of classification on 
different occasions according to the purpose of 
our investigation. 

Thus Dr Myers, speaking at the British 
Association in 1921, distinguished four varieties, 
namely, those characterised by (a) strain, and 
(b) relaxation in response to a favourable situa- 

140 


THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


tion, and by (c) strain, and (d) relaxation in 
response to one unfavourable. 

This is a perfectly good and legitimate classi¬ 
fication whenever, and so long as, the discussion 
of any problem is facilitated thereby. But it is 
obviously not the only possible one, although 
it has the great merit of defining its categories 
in fairly unambiguous terms and of affording 
obvious opportunities of correlating any psycho¬ 
logical conclusions deduced from it with physio¬ 
logical and biological factors. 

The value of any classification of varieties of 
affective tone must depend solely on the use that 
is to be made of it and in this chapter I propose 
to contend that the concepts of ‘ positive ’ 
and ‘ negative ’ tone, defined as I have defined 
them, are of fundamental utility. 

In view of what I have just written it is clear 
that I must start by stating what I conceive 
to be the object of any such classification and 
this is equivalent to a statement of the whole 
object of psychological investigation. 

I do not think it will be denied that this is to 
study and elucidate the mechanism responsible 
for mental activity and I hold, therefore, that 
no account of affective tone is of any value 
unless, and except in so far as, it is considered 
and explained in its capacity as a part of that 
mechanism. 

Mental activity consists in a succession of 
mental states, or rather in a continuous flux of 
which a mental state is an instantaneous section, 
and I hold the view that any mental state can 
be described in terms of two irreducibles which, 
provisionally, I call Attention and Ideas or 
Systems of Ideas. I am well aware that there 
are many difficulties latent in these terms, 

I 4 I 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


especially in the latter, but it is not easy to find 
any satisfactory substitute. I have previously 
spoken of ‘ presentations’ and ‘ groups of 
presentations,’ but if it were not for the con¬ 
troversies which centre round the problem of 
‘ imageless thought ’ and certain difficulties 
connected with perception, I should be disposed 
to use the word ‘ images ’ in preference to 
either of the two alternatives given above, and 
in dealing with such processes as Memory, 
Dream, Phantasy and Hallucination it is clearly 
adequate and free from ambiguity. But, on 
the whole, I prefer, at present, to keep to 
‘ presentations,’ ‘ groups of presentations,’ or, 
more generally, ‘ ideas.’ 

Psychology, then, consists primarily in the 
study of the incidence of attention upon ideas, 
or—to paraphrase this slightly—the accession 
of ideas to consciousness ; and so far as psycho¬ 
logists are concerned with the working of the 
individual mind as actually encountered their 
business is to elucidate the laws which deter¬ 
mine this incidence. 

The foregoing must not be taken as implying 
that the psychologist is not concerned with 
unconscious processes and factors ; they are, 
on the contrary, of supreme importance. But 
this importance is derived solely from their 
capacity as causal determinants of the kinds 
of mental state referred to above, and if it 
were not for the latter we should never have 
been led to study them. If the content of the 
Unconscious exerted no influence on that of the 
Conscious we should know nothing of it and care 
less ; we can only deal, in the first instance and 
at first hand, with ‘ end-products/ Everything 
else is a matter of inference, not direct experience. 

142 




THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


In dream, for example, the manifest content is 
determined by all manner of unconscious factors, 
but psychologists would have remained ignorant 
of, and indifferent to them but for the necessity 
of explaining and interpreting that manifest 
content. 

It is clear, I think, that from this point of 
view it is useless to begin by talking of pleasant 
and unpleasant emotion, of sexual emotion, 
of emotions of rage, pain, grief, shame, anxiety 
or joy. Such a classification may be convenient 
for certain purposes but the categories are very 
vague, the emotions classified are often of a 
mixed nature and the terms used have no 
reference to the influence which these emotions 
exert on the accession to consciousness of the 
ideas which they accompany. 

As already indicated in my first chapter, 
I think it would be better not to use the terms 
‘ emotion ’ and ‘ affective tone ' as interchange¬ 
able, but rather to reserve the former for dis¬ 
cussion of ‘ the emotions/ as exemplified above, 
and to use only the latter when dealing with the 
elementary mechanisms of mental activity. For 
there are only two possible modes in which the 
affective tone concomitant to an idea can 
affect attention—only two ways in which the 
accession of that idea to consciousness can be 
influenced: attention may be attracted or 
repelled, the accession may be promoted or 
impeded, but no third effect is conceivable. 
Hence, for the student of mental processes as 
such, the classification of emotions as painful, 
pleasant, grievous, shameful, sexual, anxious, 
joyous and so forth is valueless, for such terms 
do not imply which of these effects is exerted 
by the emotions to which they refer. 

i43 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


This point of view may be restated less for¬ 
mally, but perhaps more effectively, as follows : 
A man dreams and certain assemblages of 
presentations, ideas, images—call them what 
you will—succeed one another in his mind ; he 
remembers or imagines and a similar process 
takes place ; he acts, and again his field of 
consciousness is filled with certain images or 
presentations albeit of a different kind. As 
a student of individual psychology my business 
is to explain how and why his attention is 
incident upon just those particular images or 
presentations; I must ask myself why they 
and not others are present in his field of con¬ 
sciousness, and a knowledge of the origin and 
properties of affective tone interests me only 
in so far as it enables me to answer that question. 

The foregoing should make it clear why I 
have proposed to use the terms ‘ positive' 
and ‘ negative' when speaking of affective 
tone rather than ‘ pleasant' and ‘ unpleasant' 
or any similar antithesis. The former terms 
probably do, as a matter of fact, correspond 
fairly closely to the latter and represent qualities 
genetically derived from them, but there are 
certainly many exceptions to the correspondence 
and an account of affective tone based on the 
antithesis of pleasant and unpleasant will not 
take us very far in our attempt to understand 
the part it plays in mental processes. If 
* pleasantly' toned ideas always reached the field 
of consciousness and ‘ unpleasant ’ ones always 
failed to do so, the distinction would be help¬ 
ful ; but this is not the case, and if we were to 
start on this basis there would come a time, 
sooner or later, when we should be forced to 
inquire into the circumstances in which un- 

144 



THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


pleasant ideas force their way into consciousness. 
This inquiry is fundamental and it seems to me 
that the best course is to start by postulating 
two opposite varieties of affective tone to be 
defined by their effects in this all-important 
respect. 

If it be objected that this postulation is un¬ 
justified and that perhaps there are not two 
opposite kinds of tone after all, I would answer, 
first, that this view is fully in accord with 
modern psychological thought in general and, 
second, that my experimental results ade¬ 
quately support it. Throughout that field of 
psychology, which may roughly be described as 
psycho-analytical, we find statements to the 
effect that certain ideas are ‘ repressed/ or 
admitted to consciousness only in a disguised 
form, on account of the ‘ painful/ ‘ conflicting ’ 
or ‘ disagreeable ’ tone which would be produced 
by their uncensored presence. Similarly, those 
ideas are represented as readily admitted to 
consciousness which, because they fulfil a wish, 
or for other reasons, are productive of ‘ pleasant ’ 
tone. 

On the experimental side I have shown that 
especial intensity of affective tone, as measured 
by the psycho-galvanic reflex, may influence the 
accession to consciousness of the ideas which it 
accompanies in two diametrically opposite ways. 
It may facilitate this accession or it may impede 
it and this can only be explained intelligibly by 
saying that, so far as accession to consciousness 
is concerned, there are two kinds of affective 
tone possessed of opposite properties. This 
conclusion can only be evaded by denying that 
the psycho-galvanic reflex indicates affective 
tone at all and I do not think that any psycho- 

145 k 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


logist acquainted with the phenomenon is likely 
to do this. 

Having thus, as I hope, cleared the ground 
and left no doubt as to my point de depart I 
can proceed to the main part of the discussion. 

One of the first points which demands con¬ 
sideration is the question of whether affective 
tone is to be regarded as being of the nature of 
an attribute of the ideas which it accompanies, in 
the same sort of way as colour or density are 
attributes of material objects. It is not un¬ 
common to hear psychologists speak of ‘ affect ' 
almost as if it were a substance which sticks to 
ideas and could, if only we were clever enough, 
be detached and put in a bottle. They do not, 
of course, really mean to suggest anything 
so ridiculous as this; but I think they do 
mean to suggest that ‘ affect ’ is either a separate 
entity sui generis , or else an attribute insepar¬ 
able from ideas and not wholly dependent on 
the context of the latter. 

As against this I would support the view that 
affective tone proceeds essentially from relations 
between different ideas or systems of ideas 
and is in no sense an attribute of them. This 
view has at least two merits: in the first 
place, it is simpler than the alternative ; for, 
in any event, we must postulate ideas and 
relations between them and if we can explain 
affective tone in terms of these postulates 
there is nothing to be gained—but something 
to be lost—by regarding it as a distinct entity 
sui generis and, as such, an additional ‘ irre¬ 
ducible/ Secondly, it can scarcely be denied 
that the affective tone of an idea is, in some 
measure at least, a function of its context; 
if not of its immediate context, then of its 

146 




THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


context in past experience. That the idea of 
yellow , say, should arouse intense affective tone 
in A and none at all in B can scarcely be ex¬ 
plained otherwise than by supposing differences 
of emotional significance between the situations 
in which it has figured for the two persons con¬ 
cerned. 

We may now consider the kinds of relation 
between ideas, or systems thereof, which lead 
to the two opposite varieties of tone. 

As a first approximation I suggest that the 
matter is one of conflict or harmony. When¬ 
ever a situation tends to call up, by association, 
groups of incompatible and opposed ideas, there 
results one variety of affective tone, while, if 
they are compatible and reinforce one another, 
the other variety of tone is produced. 

But this conception of conflict and harmony 
requires further elucidation. To say that those 
ideas conflict which are ‘ incompatible ’ does not, 
of itself, take us verv far. For it seems clear 
that there are many ideas, or groups of ideas, 
which might fairly be called incompatible but 
which could not reasonably be regarded as 
conflicting and whose juxtaposition in the field 
of consciousness is certainly not productive of 
affective tone. Thus, if I am asked “ Where is 
John ? ” and I am not sure whether he is in 
Cambridge or not, there may well be present 
within my field of consciousness two groups of 
ideas corresponding to ‘ John-in-Cambridge* 
and ‘ John-not-in-Cambridge ’ respectively. But 
although these two groups of ideas are logically 
incompatible—since J ohn cannot both be in 
Cambridge and not be in Cambridge—their 
incompatibility will not, of itself, produce any 
affective state in my mind. Merely formal 

147 




THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


incompatibility is clearly not the characteristic 
of that relationship of conflict which results 
in one of the two varieties of affective tone (i.e. 
negative tone). 

I suggest that conflict arises only when, 
and in so far as, the systems of ideas concerned 
tend towards opposing or incompatible organic 
adjustments or reactions. To express this 
slightly differently, I might say that affective 
tone results from the conflict or harmony of 
simultaneously evoked wishes or ‘ wish-tenden¬ 
cies/ 1 This may seem somewhat far-fetched, 
but I do not think that it is really so. A more 
acceptable way of putting it, perhaps, would be 
to say that the conflict or harmony is between 
different conative elements in the total mental 
state, and I doubt whether any ps3^chologist 
would maintain that any mental state is wholly 
devoid of conative elements. Much depends on 
what we understand by the word ‘ wish/ and in 
this matter I share the view of Holt, who says : 

“ It (the wish) is a course of action which the 
body takes, or is prepared (by motor set) to 
take with regard to objects, relations, or 
events in the environment. The prophetic 
quality of thought which makes it seem 
that thought is the hidden and inner 
secret of conduct is the preceding labile 
interplay of motor settings which goes on 
almost constantly, and which differs from 
overt conduct in that the energy involved 
is too small to produce gross bodily move¬ 
ments.” 2 

1 At any rate it is the conflict between such wish-tendencies that 
produces negative tone. Positive tone may, perhaps, not always 
require two systems for its production. 

2 The Freudian Wish, p. 94. 

148 


THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


The view I have suggested is easy enough to 
accept if we consider an artificially simple case 
in which a situation may evoke by the usual 
processes of association and innate physio¬ 
logical mechanisms ideas antecedent to mutually 
exclusive reactions—groups of motor presenta¬ 
tions, in fact, which, if attended to, would lead 
to incompatible actions. But it is admittedly 
harder to grasp in the case of mental processes 
which, superficially at least, appear to be purely 
‘ intellectual ' and to have nothing whatever to 
do with action of any kind. 

As a matter of fact I doubt whether any 
mental process can properly be considered 
as wholly divorced from prospective action, 
although it may not be easy in any given case 
to identify the particular actions which it 
indirectly foreshadows. But, however indirect 
the connexion may be, however many links in 
the chain may intervene between action and the 
passing thought, it must be conceded, I think, 
that the latter occurs only by virtue of its 
relevance to and associations with the former. 
The idea that a man thinks merely for the 
sake of thinking is one which I find it impossible 
to entertain ; he thinks as a prelude to action, 
as a necessary antecedent to those reactions 
and adjustments to his environment, the neces¬ 
sity for which constitutes, strictly speaking, 
the sole raison d'etre for mental processes of any 
kind. 

This also is well expressed by Holt: 

“ Thought is latent course of action with 
regard to environment ( i.e . is motor setting) 

. . . but . . . Will is also course of action 
with regard to environment, so that the 

149 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


only difference between thought and voli¬ 
tion is one of the intensity of nerve impulse 
which plays through the sensori-motor arcs 
—a difference of minimal importance for 
psychology /’ 1 

It must never be forgotten that psycholog}^ 
is one of the biological sciences and that the 
whole of biological science may be described 
as the story of the adaptation of organisms 
to their environment. This necessity for adapta¬ 
tion is the driving-power, so to speak, respon¬ 
sible for every form of vital activity and is the 
cardinal principle which must never be lost 
sight of throughout the study of any biological 
problem. (If exception be taken to my use of 
the phrase ‘ driving-power,’ I would merely 
point out that organisms which behave as if 
this were the case—no matter what may be 
the real reason for their behaviour—have a 
greater chance of surviving than those which 
do not. This has led to the elimination of 
the latter in favour of the former and the exist¬ 
ing state of affairs is, consequently, prag¬ 
matically indistinguishable from that which is 
implied in the preceding sentences.) 

To this principle the amoeba in its pond and 
so relatively complex and sensitive an organism 
as a modern politician are alike subservient. 
Each reacts in such a way as to adapt himself 
as perfectly as possible to his environment, 
no matter whether the changes in the latter 
are in respect of such simple matters as tempera¬ 
ture, pressure or salinity or the more subtle 
influences of Ethical beliefs and Voting power. 

The points I wish to make are that, so soon 

1 The Freudian Wish, p. 98. 

150 



THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


as we adopt a broad biological standpoint, 
mental processes must be regarded as simply and 
solely a part of the total mechanism whereby the 
adaptation of the organism to its environment is 
secured ; that this process of adaptation must, 
in the last analysis, resolve itself into organic 
adjustments of some kind ; and that all mental 
states must, therefore, be inextricably bound up 
with conative tendencies, wishes, and those 
varieties of presentation—motor presentations 
to wit—attention to which is productive of 
adaptative action . 1 

I need hardly say that I use the term ‘ environ¬ 
ment ’ in the widest possible sense to include 
all forces and factors, of whatever nature, 
which may in any way influence the organism. 
I also realise that inasmuch as individuals 
differ from one another, so the degree of their 
adaptation to externally identical environments 
will also differ. But whether the individual’s 
adaptation be effected by changing the environ¬ 
ment or by changing itself, it must equally 
proceed from reactions and organic adjustments 
of one kind or another. 

To revert : affective tone, in my view, may 
be said to proceed from the simultaneous evoca¬ 
tion of different systems of ideas containing, 
inter alia , conative elements or wish-tendencies 
appropriate to the real situation corresponding 
to the idea evoked. These involve subliminal 2 
innervations of the physiological mechanisms 
which would be concerned in the reaction. If 
these reactions and adjustments are incom- 

1 Cf. Ward, Psychological Principles, Chapter II, etc. 

2 I use the word ‘ subliminal' to denote innervations too weak 
to result in overt actions—what Holt calls “gross bodily move¬ 
ment.” 

151 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


patible a conflict of a physiological nature takes 
place, an inhibition or blocking occurs and 
endosomatic sensations are thereby generated 
which, when perceived, give rise to one variety 
of affective tone. (I shall deal with the other 
variety shortly.) 

This close connexion of thought with potential 
action is readily appreciated if we consider 
certain simple cases of it. To take an extreme 
case, we all know how we tend instinctively 
to clench our fists if we are angered, and a 
similar but fainter innervation can often be 
traced in other cases. If, for example, I imagine 
myself dancing, I can identify certain faint 
kinsestlietic sensations proceeding from the 
muscles of my legs and trunk, as well as the 
appropriate visual and auditory images. The 
connexion is admittedly far less obvious in 
the case of more ‘ abstract ’ thinking; but 
inasmuch as all mental processes are ultimately 
directed towards adaptative adjustment of some 
kind, it seems probable that the same process is 
always at work, though in a less direct and 
palpable way. 

Consider, for example, what happens if I 
receive a telegram stating that “ Jones is dead.” 
If Jones is in any way significant to me, if he 
plays any part in my life at all, it is on account 
of certain reactions of my own towards situations 
in which he is an element. Apart from those 
situations and the reactions which they provoke 
he would be nothing at all to me, and whenever 
the idea of Jones is present to my mind there 
must be present also, in some measure, the 
presentations corresponding to those situations 
and those reactions. My distress (or elation) 
at the demise of Jones proceeds, it would appear, 

152 


THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


from the prospective inhibition or nullification 
of those reactions. 

Hitherto, I have laid more stress on the 
causes which lead to the production of that 
variety of affective tone which corresponds to 
conflict (negative tone) than to the other variety. 
I have done this because it is fairly easy to 
understand, in principle at least, how the simul¬ 
taneous evocation of systems of ideas contain¬ 
ing conative tendencies towards incompatible 
reactions may lead to nervous impulses com¬ 
peting, so to speak, for mutually exclusive 
efferent paths and, by their reciprocal inhibi¬ 
tion or blocking, occasioning an endosomatic 
disturbance, which in turn would originate 
afferent impulses appreciated as affective tone. 
It is not quite so easy to imagine how the 
other variety of tone (positive) comes about, 
but I think it is quite practicable to advance 
reasonable suggestions with regard to it. I 
might, of course, content myself with claiming 
that if conflict and inhibition are responsible 
for one variety of tone, then it is likely that 
harmony and reinforcement will produce the 
other variety. In these particular circumstances 
I think that such a course would be legitimate, 
but it is obviously open to criticism on logical 
grounds. 

Moreover, although I have suggested that 
conative tendencies and their concomitant sub¬ 
liminal innervations are productive of both 
kinds of tone, I do not consider that the mech¬ 
anism responsible for this effect is precisely 
the same in the case of positive tone as that 
described above in considering negative tone. It 
is difficult to imagine how innervations which 
reinforce one another could produce a recoil, 

i53 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


so to speak, of nervous energy in the form of 
afferent impulses in the way which seems 
comprehensible enough in cases when there is 
blocking and inhibition. 

One possible view would be that positive 
tone results from a relaxation of the tension 
which constitutes what we call our ‘ normal ’ 
state—the state, that is, in which we are not 
conscious of any marked affective tone of either 
kind. It could plausibly be maintained, I 
think, that this state is not one of absolute 
but of relative absence of conflict. In every 
situation there are, I conceive, elements cal¬ 
culated to provoke, however faintly, many 
different kinds of organic adjustment or re¬ 
action. That these reactions do not become 
overt means simply that they are inhibited, and 
if inhibited then there must result the state of 
affairs productive of negative tone as above 
described. Our unconsciousness of this is pre¬ 
cisely paralleled by our unconsciousness of 
normal tone in the skeletal muscles or of a 
long-continued stimulus to which we have 
become habituated. But we all know that, 
in the latter case, cessation of the stimulus is 
at once noticed. Similarly, it may be suggested 
that so soon as the presentations corresponding 
to these inhibited reactions are succeeded in 
consciousness by others corresponding to a 
reaction against which no inhibiting forces are 
opposed—for whatever reasons this reaction 
may be evoked—this normal state of tension or 
negative tone vanishes, its cessation is perceived 
and this perception constitutes the other variety 
of tone. According to this view the tone 
consequent upon the relaxation of the ante¬ 
cedent tension would be in the nature of a 

154 





THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


‘ contrast effect' and its intensity would increase 
in proportion to that of the tension relaxed. 
This accords with the known character of the 
feeling of ‘ relief ’ which accompanies the cessa¬ 
tion of acute conflict . 1 

I do not wish to attach any considerable 
weight to this suggestion, but I think it not 
impossible that the processes in question may 
play some part in the production of affective 
tone. In particular the probability that the 
absence of inhibition and conflict in the normal 
state is only relative seems to me to be worth 
bearing in mind, especially in view of its close 
resemblance to, and possible connexion with, the 
phenomena of normal skeletal tone ; for these 
last constitute an additional link between the 
psychological and physiological aspects of the 
questions involved. 

The alternative view of the origin of that 
variety of affective tone which results from the 
evocation of systems of ideas tending to produce 
compatible reactions may be conveniently de¬ 
ferred until I have made a short digression on 
the subject of Pain and Pleasure as such. 

So far I have concerned myself solely with the 
affective tone which accompanies the accession 
of systems of ideas to consciousness. But 
experience indicates that affective tone ma}^ 
result from circumstances in which the ideas 
present to consciousness play no apparent 
part at all. There can be no doubt that, 
in general, the sensation of Pain—produced by 
the stimulation of the appropriate receptors— 
is negatively toned, but it is not at first sight 
clear how this tone can be said to arise from 
the conflict of incompatible conative tendencies. 

1 Compare Dr Myers’ classification of affective tone cited above. 

155 



THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Mutatis mutandis the same applies to the 
positive tone which normally accompanies the 
enjoyment of any sensuous pleasure. 

There are two explanations which might be 
adopted in order to bring these phenomena into 
line with the views expressed above. At first 
sight the simplest is to regard pain-sensations 
(and their opposites) as constituting merely a 
sub-division of that class of sensations, pre¬ 
viously referred to, whose perception gives rise 
to affective tone. According to this view the 
affective tone arising from pain, for instance, 
would only differ from that occasioned by the 
evocation of conflicting ideas by the fact that 
the former can be aroused by the direct stimula¬ 
tion of receptors by external influences, while 
the latter is due to the reciprocal inhibition of 
nervous impulses and consequent endosomatic 
disturbance. The position could then be stated 
as follows : 

There is a class of sensations whose presence 
in consciousness constitutes the affective tone of 
mental states; of these some produce one 
variety of tone while others produce the opposite. 
These two sub-classes may further be roughly 
divided into sensations produced by the stimu¬ 
lation of definite receptors and those which are 
not: the latter are occasioned by processes of 
inhibition or the reverse within the body itself. 

But this view is open to criticism on the ground 
that our perception of pain, for example, is not 
identical with the affective tone concomitant 
to it ; two distinct things seem to be involved, 
and in certain cases the affective tone accom¬ 
panying sensations of pain may be definitely 
positive. 

I incline, therefore, to the alternative view 

156 


THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


which regards the affective tone accompanying 
pain as determined by causes precisely similar 
to those responsible for the tone produced by the 
conflict of opposed ideas ; that is to say, by the 
blocking of innervations antecedent to reactions. 

The sensation of pain invariably tends to 
produce an immediate and well-marked reaction 
of a nature calculated to remove the affected 
part from the vicinity of the cause of the pain. 
I suggest that the affective tone of a mental 
state which includes pain-sensations is deter¬ 
mined by the obstruction, if any, which this 
reaction encounters. In the limiting case where 
there is no obstruction of any kind and where, 
consequently, the reaction is carried out and 
the cessation of pain secured the instant the 
sensation is perceived, there will be no affec¬ 
tive tone ; but there is, in practice, always 
some delay and consequently some affective 
tone. This, of course, is markedly the case 
when, as a result of injury to tissues or for 
other reasons, there is no reaction which can 
bring alleviation. 

If a blister has been raised on my hand by 
burning, the pain persists and although the 
reaction to pain in that case may consist in a 
withdrawal of the hand in a perfectly well 
determined manner, this reaction must be 
inhibited since it cannot, for external reasons, 
be continued indefinitely ; hence the negative 
affective tone concomitant to the condition, 
as distinct from the sensation of pain as such. 

Similar considerations may perhaps be applied 
to the affective tone aroused by the direct 
stimulation of those receptors which give rise to 
feelings of sensuous pleasure. 

In the case of negative tone due to the evoca- 

i57 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


tion of ideas, the endosomatic disturbances are 
set up, as already described, by the reciprocal 
inhibition of mutually exclusive innervations ; 
it is now for consideration what origin is to 
be ascribed to analogous sensations in the case 
of the other variety of tone. The answer to 
this may, I think, be found in the indisputable 
fact that the free exercise of muscular activity 
is intrinsically pleasant. Freud even goes so 
far as to reckon the muscles, in this respect, 
among the erogenous zones whose stimulation 
gives rise to * sexual ’ pleasure. (Compare 
almost any account of the Freudian theory of 
Infantile Sexuality—a better name for which 
would be Infantile Sensuousness.) This fact is 
not only adequately supported by common 
experience but also accords with what we 
should expect on general grounds. Biological 
processes have certainly operated—whatever 
their mechanisms—in such a way as to produce 
organisms so constituted physiologically that 
activities of survival value, or stimulations 
provocative of such activities, are pleasant 
and, in general, positively toned. In this cate¬ 
gory unimpeded muscular movement can cer¬ 
tainly be reckoned. An infant who derived no 
satisfaction from the mere exercise of his limbs 
would never develop his muscles adequately, 
and his chances of survival would be corre¬ 
spondingly diminished. This seems competent 
to explain how the evocation of ‘ harmonious * 
systems of ideas is as productive of affective tone 
as is that of ‘ conflicting ' systems. 

Why one kind of somatic sensation should 
produce the state of mind we call pleasantfy 
toned, while another produces the oppositely 
toned state is, and must remain, an insoluble 

158 





THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


problem ; but this equally applies to the question 
of why one kind of sensation should produce the 
state of mind we call ‘ seeing/ while another 
produces that very different state we call 
‘ hearing/ 

I feel that I may reasonably claim some 
measure of support for this somatic view of 
the origin of affective tone, from the fact that 
the latter seems inseparably bound up with 
physiological changes in a way which the purely 
cognitive and ‘ intellectual ' elements of mental 
activities are not. Whenever we study any 
somatic change, such as involuntary muscular 
movements, or respiration, or heart-beat, or 
secretions of glands, or the psycho-galvanic 
reflex simultaneously with changes in affective 
tone we find a correspondence between the two 
sets of phenomena, and it seems probable 
that if we could apply perfect quantitative 
methods to the study of this correspondence 
we should find a one-to-one correlation. But 
wherever there is a significant correlation be¬ 
tween two series of phenomena it is necessary 
to suppose either that one is the cause of the 
other or that both are due to the operation of 
a common cause. The former is the simpler 
view and, in this case, supports the considera¬ 
tions I have brought forward above. 

There are one or two minor points which 
harmonise with this view and which may con¬ 
veniently be dealt with here. The first is 
the fact that the affective tone of a mental 
state is not amenable to direct introspection ; 
so soon as we try to attend to it, it vanishes 
and is gone. This would be a necessary conse¬ 
quence of its proceeding from relations between 
systems of ideas. For the effort to attend to 

i59 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


the affective tone involves ipso facto a reorienta¬ 
tion of the field of attention and, therefore, 
a disturbance of the relation responsible for the 
tone. 

The second is that the affective intensity of 
the mental state corresponding to a reaction 
often appears to be determined by the ease 
with which that reaction can be carried out. 
Thus Dr Rivers says : 

“ There seems to be little doubt that fear 
becomes especially pronounced when there 
is interference with, or even the prospect 
of interference with, the process of fleeing, 
and the possibility cannot be excluded that 
the normal and unimpeded flight of animals 
from danger is not accompanied by the 
emotion of fear .” 1 

This is precisely what we should expect on 
the assumption that affective tone is the product 
of conflict or harmony between the different 
conative tendencies which are evoked by a 
given situation and which oppose or reinforce 
one another according to whether the motor 
reactions which they foreshadow and sublimin- 
ally innervate are incompatible or not. In free 
and unimpeded flight devoid of even imagined 
obstruction—a state which is practically un¬ 
obtainable I imagine—there is only one conative 
tendency, only one set of innervations going on ; 
no opposed and incompatible reaction is fore¬ 
shadowed—consequently there is no conflict. 

It is probable that the implications scattered 
throughout the preceding pages will have made 
clear the relation of the antithesis of * pleasant' 

1 Instinct and the Unconscious, p. 57. 

160 




THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


and ‘ unpleasant’ to that of ‘ positive' and 
‘ negative’ affective tone. I may, however, 
conveniently add a few words on the point. 
Pleasant and unpleasant is the original and 
fundamental distinction from which the other is 
genetically derived. The relation is precisely 
the same as that between Freud’s ‘ pleasure- 
pain ’ and ‘ reality ’ principles. On this subject 
Ernest Jones writes : 

“ The former represents the primary, original 
form of mental activity and is characteristic 
of the earliest stages of human develop¬ 
ment, both in the individual and in the 
race. ... Its main attributes are a ten¬ 
dency, on the one hand, to avoid pain and 
disagreeableness of whatever kind, and, 
on the other, a never-ceasing demand for 
immediate gratification ... it is, in other 
words, ruled entirely by the hedonic 
pleasure-pain (. Lust — Unlust) principle. . . . 
The function of the latter (reality principle) 
is to adapt the organism to the exigencies 
of reality, to subordinate the imperious 
demand for immediate gratification, and 
to replace this by a more distant but more 
permanently satisfactory one. It is thus 
influenced by social, ethical and other 
external considerations that are ignored 
by the earlier principle.” 1 

This is, of course, somewhat loosely expressed 
but it sufficiently shows the nature of the 
relation in question. At first, pleasant tone is 
synonymous with positive and unpleasant with 
negative ; but so soon as experience begins to 

1 Papers on Psycho-analysis, Second Edition, 1920, p. 3. 

l6l L 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


operate through association, the reactions and 
mental processes of the organism begin to be 
oriented not only by immediate but also by 
ultimate gratification. The two may, and fre¬ 
quently do, coincide, but when they do not— 
when ‘ unpleasant ’ ideas are positively toned, 
it is because past experiences, conserved ‘as 
memories and brought into play by association, 
give rise to greater conflict if the ideas in question 
are not present to consciousness than if they 
are. 

One merit of this view of affective tone is the 
ease with which it can be brought into line 
with the mechanism of ‘ repression/ It seems 
fairly clear that the state of conflict produced 
by the reciprocal inhibition of mutually exclusive 
conative tendencies cannot persist indefinitely, 
for so long as it lasts the organism is immobilised, 
so to speak, and its activities suspended ; the 
condition is one of unstable equilibrium, very 
easily disturbed. But this disturbance means 
simply that of the two conflicting systems 
one is displaced from consciousness and suc¬ 
ceeded by another. This I conceive to be the 
general process whereby the appearance and 
disappearance of ideas in consciousness is brought 
about. Of this process repression is but one 
aspect, although the word is commonly used in a 
much more limited sense and as if it referred to a 
distinct mechanism. 

It will almost certainly be objected at this 
point that repressed ideas are by definition, 
ideas which are never present to consciousness at 
all. This is perfectly true in some cases, but 
it does not really invalidate my view. In the 
first place, the fact that repressed ideas are never 
brought to consciousness does not mean that 

162 


THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


they never have been present thereto and I cannot 
see my way to agreeing with those who maintain 
this, for I completely fail to understand how 
these authorities account for the presence of the 
ideas concerned in the mind at all. 

But, granting that they have got there some¬ 
how, my view continues to hold good, for we 
know that although such ideas never come into 
the full focus of attention, so to speak, and never 
reach the centre of the field of consciousness, they 
do on occasion approach the ‘ marginal fringe/ 
(These metaphorical expressions are very un¬ 
satisfactory, but they seem to be unavoidable.) 
It is only by supposing this to be so that we can 
account for the fact that marked affective tone is 
produced whenever a situation contains elements 
which are associated with the repressed ideas. 
It is on this fact alone that the word-association 
test is founded ; if it were not so, we could 
never get on the track of ‘ complexes ’ by observ¬ 
ing the phenomena evoked by the stimulus- 
words. 

A further analogy naturally suggests itself 
here. Repressed ‘ negatively' toned ideas 
behave very much as electrically charged bodies 
would do in the presence of another similarly 
and intensely changed body. They are repelled 
by the latter, but so long as they are far re¬ 
moved from it the repulsion is negligible, while 
if for any external reason they are drawn towards 
it the repulsion rapidly increases. Somewhat 
similarly, repressed ideas, which would be pro¬ 
ductive of negative tone if present in the field of 
consciousness, are, so to speak, innocuous so long 
as they remain beyond the marginal fringe and 
lie buried in the unconscious. But so soon 
as external circumstances (e.g. the stimulus- 

163 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


words) arouse them and tend to draw them into 
consciousness, conflict is set up and negative 
tone results. 

I regard repression, as commonly understood, 
as no more than a part of the general process 
whereby systems of ideas are displaced from 
consciousness, or fail fully to accede to it, as 
a result of the conflict between their conative 
elements and those forming part of other 
dominant systems. The questions of why those 
other systems are ‘ dominant’ is, of course, very 
important but it would take us too far to discuss 
it here. 

I ought also to touch on the question of 
whether it is really legitimate to speak of affec¬ 
tive tone as the cause of mental changes. Strictly 
speaking, I doubt whether it is ; the changes 
and the tone are alike produced by a common 
cause—conflict or harmony of the kind discussed 
above, to wit—and perhaps neither can properly 
be regarded as the cause of the other. In 
practice, of course, this distinction is insigni¬ 
ficant, since there is—according to my view—a 
one-to-one correlation between the conflict or 
harmony and the affective tone. But, apart 
from this I am inclined to think that affective 
tone is, if anything, the more fundamental of the 
two, for the potential reactions which harmonise 
or conflict have their raison d’etre in adaptation 
to environment for failure in which unpleasant 
tone is the immediate penalty and the immediate 
motive power for readjustment. 

Finally, I wish to point out that although I 
believe the account of the origin of affective tone 
which I have given in this chapter to be on 
approximately the right lines, the correctness 
or otherwise of my theoretical views has no 

164 






THE THEORY OF AFFECTIVE TONE 


bearing at all on whatever value iny experi¬ 
mental results may possess. The main concept 
of positive and negative tone is founded on 
purely empirical evidence and neither its exist¬ 
ence nor its mode of operation is affected by 
any theories we may construct as to its origin. 

It is a matter of experimental fact that 
something (which we may as well call ‘ affective 
tone/ but which could equally well be referred 
to by any other symbol) can be measured by 
means of the psycho-galvanic reflex and exerts 
an influence on the accession of ideas to con¬ 
sciousness. This influence may work in either 
of two opposite directions and its cause must 
therefore be of two opposite kinds. Positive 
and negative merely happen to be convenient 
symbols for referring to these two varieties of 
the cause. If, as psychologists, we wish to 
study the ways in which the content of conscious¬ 
ness varies, we can safely use these empirically 
observed facts and the symbols for referring to 
them without in any way committing ourselves 
to the acceptance of any particular theoretical 
doctrine as to the true nature or origin of the 
facts. 


CHAPTER VIII 


SUMMARY 

I may conveniently conclude this book with a 
brief summary of its principal contents. 

In the first chapter a brief account is given of 
my personal attitude towards the general theory 
of Emotion and Affective Tone. I propose to 
reserve the former term for reference to specific 
emotions, such as Fear or Rage, and to use the 
latter to denote the general emotional quality of 
mental states. Identifying myself in the main 
with the James-Eange theory of emotion and 
with Professor M'DougaH’s view of the relation 
between this and Instinct, I deal briefly with 
one or two criticisms of the former and explain 
how this theory seems to me to fit in with 
Professor M'DougalFs views. 

I conclude with a few remarks on the psycho¬ 
galvanic reflex and the word-association test 
as such. 

In Chapter II I describe experiments to 
determine the influence of Affective Tone on 
Memory. The psycho-galvanic reflex, the re¬ 
action time and the reproduction test are 
used to detect and measure affective tone 
elicited by word-association tests, and periodic 
reproduction of learned words gives a measure 
of their memory value. Co-ordination of the 
two sets of data shows that a marked influence 
is exerted by affective tone on memory, especially 
when the reflex is used. In this case the 


1GG 


SUMMARY 


influence may be exerted in either of two 
opposite directions, whence the existence of two 
opposite kinds of tone is deduced. These are 
named positive and negative respectively. The 
indications of reaction time and reproduction 
test are also discussed. 

In Chapter III I investigate the properties 
of complex-indicators and combinations thereof. 
Eight combinations are possible and I com¬ 
pute the mean memory value for each such 
combination. It is shown that the reproduc¬ 
tion test is the best complex-indicator in the 
pathological sense and the properties of the 
various combinations (some of which indicate 
one kind of tone and others the opposite kind) 
are worked out both qualitatively and quanti¬ 
tatively. The results show a remarkable quanti¬ 
tative concordance. 

In Chapter IV I apply the foregoing results 
to the study of the different verbal forms which 
the association may take. I adopt a system 
of classification slightly different from that 
of Jung and give theoretical and (subsequently) 
experimental justification for the alteration. 
It is found that different verbal forms have, 
on the average, widely different affective quali¬ 
ties and again there is found to be good agree¬ 
ment both between qualitative and quantitative 
results and between these and theoretical 
considerations. A ‘ check back ' on to memory 
values confirms the reliability of the methods 
used and the ‘ innerness ’ of the association 
is surmised to be chiefly an index of negative 
tone. 

In Chapter V I describe experiments to 
show that the association test in conjunction 
with the psycho-galvanic reflex may be used as 

167 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


a criterion of individuality. The coefficient 
of correlation between the reactions of any 
individual on different occasions is shown to be 
on the average much higher than that between 
the reactions of different individuals to the 
same—suitably chosen—list of stimulus-words. 
Possible applications of this method are sug¬ 
gested, notably with respect to the phenomena 
of hypnosis and multiple personality. 

In Chapter VI I describe experiments on the 
effects of alcohol on the psycho-galvanic reflex 
and the word-association test. The first effect 
noted is the diminution of the absolute magni¬ 
tude of the mean reflex. The variability of 
reactions is also diminished. Analysis of the 
reactions and verbal associations by the tech¬ 
nique developed in Chapters III and IV shows 
that, under the influence of alcohol, there is 
a tendenc}^ to regress to a more primitive, all- 
or-none, or ‘ protopathic ’ type of reaction. 

In Chapter VII I return to the theoretical 
discussion of affective tone. I point out that 
any system of classification is permissible, pro¬ 
vided it is useful for the purpose in hand, 
but the contention is put forward that the 
distinction between positive and negative tone 
as already defined is fundamental to the psycho¬ 
logist. An attempt is made to account for the 
origin of the two varieties of tone in terms of 
the nervous excitations accompanying the 
organic adjustments evoked in response to the 
contemporary situation. 


168 





Kiss- 



I 23456 


7 8 9® 


I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9&\ 2 3 4 


5 6 7 8 <©1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <©| 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9^1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9f82>l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 S® I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9^1 2 3 4'5 6 7 8 9^1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 






























































































































































APPENDIX I 

REACTIONS OF A TYPICAL SUBJECT 



Stimulus 

Word. 

Reaction 

Word. 


Galvanometer. 





Galvanometer. 

No. 

R.T. 




No. 

Stimulus 

Word. 

Reaction 

Word. 

R.T. 






From 

To 

DifF. 



From 

To 

Diff. 





I 

Head 

Hand 

IO 

20 

34 

14 

51 

Frog 

Whip 1 

10 

60 

66 

6 

2 

Green 

Sea 

11 

23 

38 

15 

2 

Try 

Judge 

12 

58 

61 

3 

3 

Water 

Cave 

IO 

25 

28 

3 

3 

Hunger 

Thirst 

10 

58 

59 

1 

4 

Smg 

Song 

9 

22 

32 

10 

4 

White 

Black 

12 

57 

59 

2 

5 

Dead 

Alive 

15 

22 

44 

22 

5 

Child 

Babv 

14 

5 b 

77 

21 

6 

7 

Long 

Ship 

Short 

Sail 

8 

9 

30 

27 

34 

30 

4 

3 

6 

7 

Speak 

Pencil 

Sing 

Write 

11 

11 

64 

61 

64 

62 

0 

1 

8 

Make 

Blouse 

IO 

25 

33 

8 

8 

Sad 

Sorrow 

18 

60 

63 

3 

9 

Woman 

Child 

7 

24 

29 

5 

9 

Plum 

Apple 

15 

58 

58 

0 

IO 

Friend 

Girl 

15 

21 

43 

22 

60 

Marry 

Wedding 

20 

55 

72 

17 

i 

Cook 

Meat 

20 

31 

36 

5 

I 

Home 

House 

14 

58 

59 

1 

2 

Ask 

What ? 

IO 

28 

33 

5 

2 

Nasty 

Bitter 

20 

56 

68 

12 

3 

Cold 

Hot 

8 

30 

44 

14 

3 

Glass 

Looking 

12 

61 

62 

1 

4 

Stalk 

Flour 

8 

35 

36 

1 

4 

Fight 

Dogs 

10 

5 b 

65 

9 

5 

Dance 

Music 

9 

30 

43 

13 

5 

Wine 

? 

15 

58 

77 

19 

6 

Village 

Town 

8 

32 

37 

5 

6 

Big 

Tree 

12 

64 

66 

2 

7 

Pond 

Lake 

7 

3 i 

34 

3 

7 

Carrot 

Turnip 

10 

63 

64 

1 

8 

Sick 

Ill 

9 

30 

54 

24 

8 

Give 

Present 

10 

72 

80 

8 

9 

Proud 

Humble 

IO 

42 

53 

11 

9 

Doctor 

Ill 

11 

62 

63 

1 

20 

Bring 

Carry 

IO 

39 

47 

8 

7 ° 

Travel 

? 

11 

61 

63 

2 

I 

Ink 

Letter 

9 

39 

49 

10 

1 

Flower 

Iris 

12 

61 

66 

5 

2 

Angry 

Fierce 

8 

38 

48 

10 

2 

Beat 

Horse 

15 

60 

68 

8 

3 

Needle 

Thread 

9 

37 

40 

3 

3 

Box 

Journey 

11 

61 

65 

4 

4 

Swim 

Sea 

IO 

36 

43 

7 

4 

Old 

Young 

10 

60 

62 

2 

5 

Go 

When ? 

9 

36 

44 

8 

5 

Family 

Many 

12 

59 

66 

7 

6 

Blue 

Red 

14 

36 

49 

13 

6 

Wait 

Station 

10 

60 

62 

2 

V 

7 

Lamp 

Oil 

12 

38 

42 

4 

7 

Cow 

Bull 

10 

59 

60 

1 

8 

Carry 

Basket 

18 

37 

4i 

4 

8 

Name 

Letter 

15 

58 

61 

3 

9 

Bread 

Butter 

9 

35 

39 

4 

9 

Luck 

Cards 

11 

58 

63 

5 

3o 

Rich 

Poor 

8 

3 6 

38 

2 

80 

Horse 

Ride 

9 

60 

63 

3 

i 

Tree 

Leaf 

9 

36 

37 

1 

1 

Table 

Dinner 

9 

59 

60 

1 

2 

Jump 

Leap 

8 

34 

41 

7 

2 

Work 

Hard 

10 

58 

58 

0 

3 

Pity 

Sorrow 

13 

34 

50 

16 

3 

Brother 

Sister 

8 

57 

58 

1 

4 

Yellow 

Flower 

16 

40 

47 

7 

4 

Afraid 

Fire 

9 

57 

66 

9 

5 

Street 

p 

12 

40 

47 

7 

5 

Love 

Children 

7 

60 

101 

41 

6 

Bury 

Dead 

10 

4 1 

46 

5 

6 

Chair 

Seat 

11 

85 

85 

0 

7 

Salt 

Sugar 

8 

40 

42 

2 

7 

Worry 

Why ? 

15 

80 

9b 

16 

8 

Dress 

White 

14 

4 1 

48 

7 

8 

Kiss 

Pleasant 

8 

81 

109 

28 

9 

Habit 

Riding 

10 

4° 

43 

3 

9 

Motor 

Far 

11 

86 

87 

1 

40 

Pray 

God 

11 

40 

62 

22 

90 

Clean 

Polish 

14 

85 

86 

1 

i 

Money 

Gold 

8 

52 

55 

3 

1 

Bag 

Carry 

10 

83 

85 

2 

2 

Silly 

Stupid 

M 

48 

55 

7 

2 

Choice 

What ? 

15 

82 

88 

6 

3 

Book 

Poetry 

11 

47 

50 

3 

3 

Bed 

Comfy 

9 

81 

82 

1 

4 

Despise 

Contempt 

12 

46 

5i 

5 

4 

State 

England 

10 

79 

82 

3 

5 

Finger 

Hand 

10 

46 

49 

3 

5 

Happy 

Very 

10 

78 

89 

11 

6 

War 

Sorrow 

14 

46 

52 

6 

6 

Shut 

Door 

10 

77 

77 

0 

7 

Bird 

Sing 

9 

47 

49 

2 

7 

Wound 

Painful 

11 

78 

84 

6 

8 

Walk 

Run 

14 

47 

53 

6 

8 

Evil 

Doing 

12 

80 

82 

2 

9 

Paper 

Parchment 

11 

48 

54 

6 

9 

Divorce 

Court 

17 

77 

86 

9 

50 

Wicked 

Man 

14 

54 

72 

18 

100 

Insult 

Injury 

12 

77 

82 

5 


1 Misunderstood as “ Flog.” 















































APPENDIX II 


A NOTE ON THE USE OF THE PSYCHO¬ 
GALVANIC REFLEX 

One of the chief difficulties connected with the use of 
the psycho-galvanic reflex is that of making compar¬ 
able with one another the reactions observed in different 
subjects and on different occasions. It might be sup¬ 
posed that the absolute magnitude of the reflex pro¬ 
duced by such physical stimuli as pricks, burns, sudden 
noises and so forth, would afford an indication of the 
comparative ‘ emotivity ' 1 of the subject concerned, 
and that this might be used as a ‘ vocational test' 
for occupations demanding self-control. But it was 
soon realised that factors other than emotivity greatly 
affect the absolute magnitude of the reflex which is, 
therefore, of small value as a test of that quality. 

It is with this question of the comparability of re¬ 
actions that the following observations are mainly 
concerned. 

The phenomenon appears to be a very complex 
one and we are at present far from a thorough under¬ 
standing of its mechanism. There seem to be, for 
instance, at least two clearly distinguishable forms of 
the reflex ; first, a change in the effective resistance 
offered by the skin to the passage of an electric current 
and, second, a generated electro-motive force which 
is independent of any current applied ah extra . 

1 ‘ Emotivity ’ being here used to denote liability to react to an 
exciting stimulus. 


170 


APPENDIX 


Of these two varieties the former is certainly a 
skin effect, though whether it is due to a change within 
the skin itself or to a change of polarisation at its 
surface is not yet clear. It is with this form that I 
shall concern myself below. 

Many methods have been used for studying the 
reflex. Following Waller, I myself have always 
used a Wheatstone’s bridge and D’Arsonval galvano¬ 
meter in conjunction with two zinc-plate electrodes, 
covered with wash-leather and soaked in a concen¬ 
trated solution of common salt; these were applied to 
the palm and back of the subject’s left hand which 
thus formed the external resistance of the bridge. 

The following factors appear to be involved in deter¬ 
mining the absolute magnitude of the galvanometer 
deflexion produced by a given stimulus : 

(i) The intensity of the emotion actually evoked. 

(ii) The proportion of it which finds expression through 

those efferent channels which innervate the skin- 
mechanisms responsible for the reflex. 

(iii) The responsiveness of the skin to such innervation . 1 

(iv) The initial resistance of the skin. 

(v) The sensitivity of the galvanometer. 

(vi) The magnitude of the fixed resistances of the bridge. 

(vii) The E.M.F. applied to the bridge. 

Of these, (i) is the quantity which we wish to measure, 
(v), (vi) and (vii) are easily kept constant or, if not, 
suitable corrections can be made on their account. 
Of the remainder, (iv) can readily be measured, and 
I deal below with the appropriate correction for it, 
but (ii) and (iii) are variables for which, at present, no 
allowance can be made. 

I propose to deal here with the question of what 
correction should be applied to compensate for varia¬ 
tions in the initial resistance of the skin. 

1 I think it probable that this factor may, for all practical pur¬ 
poses, be subsumed under (ii) or (iv) or both. 

171 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


This point is of importance for two reasons. First: 
even if we cannot eliminate all the causes of variation, 
other than (i) above, between different subjects, it is 
desirable to remove as many as we can, both with a 
view to closer study of those which remain and in 
order to reduce the amount of fortuitous variations 
to be neutralised by the use of such statistical methods 
as may be necessary. Second : if we are studying the 
behaviour of the same subject on different occasions 
we shall wish to make the results obtained as compar¬ 
able as possible with respect to (i) and we may for 
the present assume that (ii), at least, and perhaps (iii) 
are not likely to vary greatly in the same subject from 
time to time. 

One of the obvious results of a difference in resistance 
between two subjects will be that a heavier current 
will be passed through the subject of lower resistance 
than through the one of higher resistance (assuming 
the E.M.F. on the bridge to be kept constant). 

It is easy to show experimentally that, in general, 
the greater the current passed through the subject, the 
greater is the absolute magnitude of his reactions. 
The question then arises whether this increased reaction 
is due simply to what I may call * normal ’ electrical 
causes or whether, as has been suggested by Prideaux, 
the heavier current produces some definite effect on the 
subject of such a nature as to increase his ‘ irritability * 
quite apart from the increased deflexion which would 
be expected on purely electrical grounds. In other 
words, can the living subject be treated, so far as 
differences of initial skin resistance are concerned, as 
if he were an inanimate resistance whose changes we 
were observing ? 

This would be easy to determine if we could apply 
standard stimuli to subjects of different resistances and 
measure the deflexions produced. This procedure, 
however, appears to me impracticable, partly because 

172 


APPENDIX 


a stimulus of small emotional import to one subject 
may arouse intense emotion in another and partly on 
account of possible and unknown effects due to the 
factors (ii) and (iii). 

These difficulties can, however, be largely surmounted 
by the use of appropriate statistical methods. 

In connexion with the experiments on memory and 
affective tone described in Chapter II, I had occasion 
to apply a word-association test of ioo words to 50 
different subjects, and to compute the mean resist¬ 
ance of each for the period of the test. I therefore 
first calculated the coefficient of correlation between the 
mean galvanometer deflexion and the mean resistance 
for these 50 subjects. Its value was —‘497,* that is 
to say, there is a strong tendency, as we would expect, 
for deflexions to increase as resistance decreases. 

On general grounds it seemed probable that initial 
resistance and the deflexion produced by a given 
stimulus would be connected by a relation of the 
form 

R X D = K 


when R is the initial resistance, D the deflexion and K 
a constant. I therefore calculated the values of the 
coefficient of variation for the expression, R r D, for 
this series of 50 subjects, giving x the values o, 1 and 2 
successively. 

The resulting values are : 

* C of V, 

o '656, 

1 *57 2 > 

2 704. 

These values lie on the curve V = -oc) 8 x 2 — *182# + -656, 
which has a minimum at the point x = -925 ; V= *5717. 

That is to say, the effect on the absolute magnitude of 
deflexions, of differing resistances of the subjects, can be 

173 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


more perfectly removed by multiplying the deflexions 
by R' 925 —which is substantially equal to R—than by 
any other power of R. 

(It may be noted that the improvement effected by 
using the expression R 925 D instead of RD is inappre¬ 
ciable, for the coefficient of variation only changes 
from *572 to -5717.) 

As a check on this, I substituted a resistance box for 
the subject and obtained by direct calibration the 
deflexions corresponding to a constant percentage 
decrease in resistances of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 
thousand ohms. Similar treatment of these gave an 
optimum value for x of approximately *9. We may 
therefore conclude that so far as variations of initial 
skin resistance are concerned, the subject does behave in 
substantially the same way as an inanimate resistance, 
and that the differences observed as the effect of 
passing a larger or smaller current through the subject 
are wholly due to normal electrical causes and not to 
any further effect of the current upon the subject 
himself. 

It is not always necessary to apply this correction ; 
but in cases where it is desirable to do so, the incon¬ 
venience of actually multiplying each deflexion by the 
resistance of the subject can be obviated by any one of 
the three methods described below. 

(i) If we take a subject of resistance 1000 ohms, say, 
as ‘ standard ’ and use for such a subject a galvano¬ 
meter shunt of x ohms selected so as to give deflexions 
of suitable size for ordinary stimuli (producing a 
decrease of resistance of about 2*5-3-0%), it is 
easy to obtain by calculation or, preferably, by direct 
calibration, the values of the shunts which will give the 
same deflexion for the same percentage decrease of 
resistance in the case of subjects of resistances 2000, 
3000, 4000, etc., ohms. These values can be plotted 
graphically as ordinates against resistances as abscissae 

174 


APPENDIX 


and the shunt appropriate to a subject of any resistance 
can be read off from the resulting graph. 

(ii) Another method is to use no shunt on the galvano¬ 
meter but to control the magnitude of the deflexions 
by varying the E.M.F. applied to the bridge by means 
of a potentiometer. Here, again, the best procedure 
will be to calibrate the apparatus directly by substitut¬ 
ing a resistance box for the subject, balancing resistances 
of i, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., thousand ohms on the bridge, 
reducing each of these when balanced by the same 
percentage—2*5 say—and adjusting the potentio¬ 
meter so as to give the same deflexion in each case. 
Potentiometer adjustments can then be plotted against 
resistances as before. 

(iii) A third method, which has the advantage that 
it requires considerably less apparatus than either of 
the foregoing, is to abolish the use of the bridge alto¬ 
gether and to employ a modification of Binswanger’s 
arrangement described in Jung’s Studies in Word 
Association ,*p. 446. The subject, battery and electrodes 
are here placed in series and no bridge is used. 1 

When the subject is at rest and not stimulated, 
there will, of course, be an initial steady deflexion of the 
galvanometer. Assuming that the resistance of the 
latter and of the remainder of the circuit is small com¬ 
pared with that of the subject, and that the galvano¬ 
meter deflexions are proportional to the current over the 
range in question, the deflexion will increase by a 
percentage equal to that by which the subject’s re¬ 
sistance decreases 

Thus, for a subject of resistance 5000 ohms, the 
initial deflexion will be twice as great as for one of 
10,000 ohms, and so will the added deflexion corre¬ 
sponding to any given stimulus. 

1 An alternative arrangement combining the advantages of this 
with those of the bridge mentioned has been described by Prideaux 
(Brain, 1920, XLIII, 50-73). 


175 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


If we interpose a potentiometer between the battery 
and the circuit, we can always pass the same current 
through the subject, thereby producing a constant 
initial deflexion and constant subsequent deflexions 
for the same percentage decrements in the subject’s 
resistance, whatever the absolute magnitude of the 
latter may be. This is what is required. 

The only disadvantage of this method is that the 
galvanometer always starts with a large deflexion of 
which only a small percentage increase is observed 
as the result of stimuli. In its simpler form it has, 
however, been successfully used by Binswanger, Vera- 
guth and others, and its simplicity and cheapness are 
very much in its favour. 

As I have observed above, it is not always necessary 
to apply a correction for the resistance of the subject 
by any of these means or by direct multiplication. 
The way in which results are handled and the form 
in which they are expressed should depend upon the 
objects of the experiments. Thus, if we are using the 
reflex merely as a ‘ complex indicator * in a word- 
association test—as a preliminary to psycho-analytic 
treatment, for example—no corrections of any sort 
need be applied, for all that concerns us is the relative 
degree of emotion evoked by the various stimulus 
words. If, on the other hand, we are seeking to ascer¬ 
tain which words of a list, or which members of a 
series of other stimuli provoke most emotion, on the 
average, in a given class of subjects, it will be best to 
express the reaction to each stimulus as a percentage of 
the mean reaction of the subject concerned for all the 
stimuli. Thus, if ten stimuli are applied to a given 
subject with the following results : 

Stimulus ABCDEF GH I K 
Reaction 7 3 9 14 2 11 8 6 12 5 

of which reactions the arithmetic mean is 77, we 

176 


APPENDIX 


should express the results for every such subject as 
follows : 

Stimulus ABC DEF GHIK 
Reaction 91 39 117 182 26 143 104 78 156 65 

(% of mean) 

This eliminates not only variations due to resistance 
but also the danger of the results being unduly in¬ 
fluenced by excessively large or small reactions, of 
whatever origin, on the part of a single subject. 

Whether the arithmetic or the probable mean should 
be used will depend on circumstances ; in nearly all 
cases the latter is preferable. But if we wish to com¬ 
pare the behaviour of different classes of subjects with 
respect to the psycho-galvanic reflex in general, it will 
be necessary to apply the correction for resistance. 
For the classes may differ by virtue of the factors (ii) 
and (iii) mentioned on p. 171 above, and this may be 
important. For instance, if we are comparing normal 
with mentally deficient persons, it may be, as is sug¬ 
gested by some as yet unpublished experiments by 
Prideaux, that the latter persons give very small re¬ 
actions to all classes of stimuli because only a small 
proportion of the emotion aroused finds expression 
through the mechanisms responsible for the reflex, or 
because they have skins of resistance much higher than 
the normal, or because they really feel less— i.e. less 
emotion is actually aroused. 

If the uncorrected results were simply averaged 
for a number of such defective persons and compared 
with the similarly treated results for normal persons, 
we could form no definite conclusions on the subject. 
Whereas, if due allowance is made for variations in 
skin resistance, any difference between the size of the 
reactions given by the two classes of subject can either 
be ascribed to this cause or, when it is eliminated, 
shown to be due to one or more of the others. 

177 


M 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


Finally, inasmuch as the phenomenon consists 
essentially in a lowering of the resistance of the skin, 
and as the percentage decrease of resistance appears 
to be, very approximately, directly proportional to 
the intensity of the emotion aroused, it is desirable that 
all results which are published with a view to compari¬ 
son with those obtained by other experimenters should 
be expressed in terms of percentage decrement of 
resistance or, at least, that sufficient data should be 
given to enable the results to be reduced to these terms. 
Absolute deflexions are valueless for comparative 
purposes, as they depend so largely on the particular 
arrangement of apparatus used. 

It may be of interest to note that in the case of the 50 
subjects mentioned above the mean resistance for all 
subjects was 4400 ohms and the mean deflexion 7-32 
mm. This corresponds, with my apparatus, to a 
decrement of resistance of about 2-3%. 


178 


APPENDIX III 


A NOTE ON PROBABILITY 


On pages 40 and 96 I have stated that the chance of 
the difference of two experimentally determined mean 
values being accidental had a certain approximate 
value. 

I am indebted to my friend, Mr W. Hope-Jones of 
Eton College, for the following method of computing 
this chance: 

“Given two means, x 1 (Probable Error = ±yj and 
x 2 (Probable Error = ±y 2 ), it is required to determine 
the probability that these two means differ as the 
result of chance and not by virtue of differing causa¬ 
tion of origin. 

“ Write y 1 = '6745 C l and y 2 = ’6745 C 2 so as to work 
in Standard Deviations instead of probable errors. 


“L etp = 


x 2 — x l 

s/W+Cl 


(x 2 being assumed greater than xj . 


Then the chance that the mean which has proved to 
be the greater is really less than the other is 



“ A table of the values of this function is given in 
Yule’s Statistics and the actual values of the chances 
given in Chapters II and IV have been computed 
therefrom.” 


179 




APPENDIX IV 


PSYCHO-PHYSICAL QUANTA 


In the course of a minor investigation which led to 
nothing worth recording, I had occasion to work out a 
frequency curve for the magnitudes of the psycho¬ 
galvanic reflexes given by my twenty-seven most 
reliable subjects. In order to get over the difficulty of 
the absolute magnitudes of the deflexions given by 
different subjects not being comparable, I expressed each 
deflexion as a percentage of the mean deflexion given 
by the individual concerned and classified the result¬ 
ing data in percentage groups. That is to say, I 
counted in each case the number of reactions which 
fell between o% and 10% of the mean, between 10% 
and 20% and so on. The results were : 


Percentage Class. 1 

Frequency. 

Percentage Class. 

Frequency, 

0-10 

168 

130-140 

104 

10-20 

66 

140-150 

87 

20-30 

162 

150-160 

55 

30-40 

91 

160-170 

53 

40-50 

151 

170-180 

40 

50-60 

153 

180-190 

55 

60-70 

182 

190-200 

35 

70-80 

123 

200-210 

29 

80-90 

204 

210-220 

24 

90-100 

144 

220-230 

30 

100-110 

165 

230-240 

18 

110-120 

141 

240-250 

17 

120-130 

100 

250-260 

17 



Over 260% 

99 



Total 

. 2513 


1 For the sake of convenience I shall henceforward refer to class 
0 %-10% as ‘class 0,' to class 10%-20% as ‘ class 10 ’ and so forth. 

180 



APPENDIX 


The frequencies above class 250-260 were too small 
to be of interest. 

These figures are very remarkable. I do not pro¬ 
pose to describe their full analysis in detail here for 
their most striking characteristics can be verified by 
inspection. 

The first point to be noted is that they are clearly 
periodic. The frequencies in the different classes 
are, in general, alternately high and low; that is to 
say, they oscillate with a 20% period. 

Secondly, there are exceptions to this rule. The 
most notable of these is class 50, but there is another 
breakdown in the neighbourhood of class 120. If 
the actual magnitudes of the oscillations be analysed 
with due regard to the fact that they must be regarded 
as superimposed on a smooth frequency distribution 
curve of approximately normal type, this alternate 
increase and decrease of the oscillations becomes very 
apparent. In my opinion the chance of this second 
periodicity being accidental is very remote and an 
approximate calculation indicates that it is not larger 
than 1 in 1200. The curve corresponding to these 
values is, therefore, a periodic curve compounded 
of at least two periodic components. 

Thirdly, it should be noted that after the oscillations 
die away ( e.g . in the neighbourhood of class 50) they 
reappear in the same phase. This is important because 
it disposes of the possibility that the effect is due 
to grouping in 10% classes material which is really 
distributed periodically in classes of some other size. 
If, for example, the reactions really tended to concen¬ 
trate about the values 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, etc., 
of their means the oscillations would behave substan¬ 
tially as they actually do up to and including class 50, 
but thereafter classes 70, 90, etc., would be large 
and classes 60, 80 and 100 would be small. 

Consequently the frequencies seem to represent 

181 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


a compound periodic curve formed by the combination 
of two independent periodic causes which produce an 
effect reminiscent of the ‘ beats ’ generated by two 
sinusoidal wave-motions of different frequencies. 

It is this double periodicity which is alone worthy 
of comment, for simple oscillations could easily be 
accounted for by the nature of the material itself. 
If, for example, a subject gave reactions consisting 
exclusively of the magnitudes o, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 
and 10 and if his mean reaction were very nearly 5 
(between 4-9 and 5-1 say), it is obvious that the fre¬ 
quency distribution curve would show a 20% periodi¬ 
city, for all reactions would be o, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 
120, 140, 160, 180 or 200% of the mean. Now it so 
happens that the material available in this connexion 
consisted largely of small integers and that several 
of the means were in the neighbourhood of 5, and it 
is therefore not improbable that the 20% periodicity 
might be due to this cause. I have tried to check this 
by determining whether, with the actual means in 
question, a random collection of small integers would 
tend to concentrate at 20% intervals, and there is no 
doubt that there is at least a slight tendency to do so. 
We may therefore ascribe one of the periodic com¬ 
ponents to the nature of the material. 

On the other hand, I do not see how we are to 
account for the second periodic component on these 
lines. In order to do so we should have to suppose 
that the means were themselves grouped closely 
around two values and that both sets tended to pro¬ 
duce periodic frequency distribution curves of different 
periods. Of this I can find no evidence at all, and I 
therefore find it necessary to look in some other direc¬ 
tion for the cause of the second periodic component. 

The only promising hypothesis seems to me to be 
to suppose that the relation between intensity of 
stimulus and magnitude of response is not smooth 

182 


APPENDIX 


and continuous but is of a * quantal’ nature. I 
suggest, that is to say, that the energy responsible 
for the reaction is not liberated continuously to an 
extent proportional throughout to the strength of 
the stimulus but in instalments or ‘ quanta.’ 

Thus stimuli below a certain value would liberate 
no energy and the reaction would be nil. When this 
value is surpassed, energy to the value of i unit (or, 
more strictly, n units) is liberated, but no more than 
this is set free whatever the intensity of the stimulus 
unless it surpasses another ‘ landmark ’ of intensity 
when 2 units (or 2 n units) are liberated, and so on. If 
this indication of the existence of psycho-physical 
‘ quanta ’ be true, it seems to me likely to prove of 
great importance to physiological psychology and to 
psycho-physics. 

And in spite of the fact that, so far as I am aware, 
the existence of psycho-physical quanta has never 
been either suspected or demonstrated before, the 
suggestion that the nervous system works in this way 
need not, I think, occasion much surprise. 

It has long been realised that, like the rest of the 
body, it is discontinuous (cellular) in its essential struc¬ 
ture. The unit is the ‘ neurone,’ and it is a common 
practice to speak of the potential energy of a neurone 
being converted into kinetic energy by the incidence 
of a stimulus from some source or other. If the views 
implied by such phrases are correct it is clear that the 
conception of quanta of nervous energy is an almost 
necessary corollary. Again, if we consider the struc¬ 
ture of synaptic junctions and of neurones possessing 
multiple processes which approximate to a multi¬ 
plicity of other neurones, it seems almost inevitable to 
suppose that the conduction of nervous energy across 
such junctions or its ‘ irradiation ’ from such a neurone 
to its neighbours must proceed in a discontinuous 
fashion. In the first case the path of least resistance 

183 


THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION 


will first be used, then, if this is insufficient to cope 
with the energy potential, other paths of higher resist¬ 
ance will be found, each coming in more or less suddenly 
just as electricity ‘ sparks ’ suddenly across a gap 
between conductors when the electrical potential is 
sufficient. In the second case an analogous process 
may be supposed to operate, only here a number of 
different neurones will receive the discharge. 

Something of this kind has already been observed 
to occur. Thus Sherrington has found that when in 
response to increased intensity of stimulus the flexion- 
reflex spreads from the knee to the hip, the spread is 
not gradual but the hip flexion suddenly comes in . 1 I 
am also told that indications of a quantal action have 
recently been obtained in the course of work on muscle 
and nerve. 

I need hardly point out, I hope, that I fully realise 
the inconclusive nature of the evidence I have sub¬ 
mitted Unfortunately external circumstances prevent 
me from undertaking a fresh series of experiments in 
order definitely to settle the point at issue. I have 
therefore published these notes in the form of an 
Appendix in the hope that the phenomena noted may 
appear sufficiently interesting and suggestive to other 
workers to induce them to undertake an ad hoc investi¬ 
gation. 


1 The Integrative Action of the Nervous System, p. 76. My italics. 


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